Key Economic Figures Debate Iran’s Financial Condition

Ongoing currency issues and the prospect of US reimposition of sanctions took a back seat on Tuesday at the annual Conference on Monetary and Foreign Exchange Policies in Tehran. 
Instead, participating officials with the Central Bank of Iran and the economic team of President Hassan Rouhani’s government chose to mostly focus on internal issues such as surging liquidity and perennial budget deficits, among others.
The two-day conference, subtitled “Structural Reforms for Fiscal Stability”, hosted a series of keynote speeches by well-known economic figures, a short celebration and book unveiling ceremony, and three expert panels.
Ali Divandari, the head of Monetary and Banking Research Institute, the entity holding the event, opened the conference. He was followed by CBI Governor Valiollah Seif who presented yet another review of general achievements and policies of the central regulator under his five-year command.
He talked about curbing the inflation rate to single digits, the last Iranian year’s (ended in March) GDP growth rate of 3.7% and limiting annual liquidity growth by 1.1% as it grew by 22.1% to reach 15.3 quadrillion rials ($356.6 billion) by the end of last year. He also said CBI is still pursuing its bank reform plan.