No Rate Cut in Sight

The meeting of chief executives of banks with the governor of the Central Bank of Iran on interest rates produced no result on Wednesday. CEOs of state-owned and private banks had raised the possibility of further rate cuts ahead of the meeting. According to IBENA, a news website affiliated with the central bank, the final decision is set to be made during the next meeting of lenders with CBI chief, Valiollah Seif, for which no date has been set yet. Currently, banks are permitted to offer approximately 15% on term deposits. However, policymakers have repeatedly expressed their desire to set the interest rate approximately 2-3% higher than the inflation rate, which is about 10% at present. Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia recently pitched the idea of creating a specialized committee only for implementing further rate cuts.