Despite the recent decline in Covid-19 cases and deaths in Iran, the deadly outbreak has not been contained in the Iranian capital Tehran, the head of the city’s coronavirus taskforce said.
Despite the recent decline in Covid-19 cases and deaths in Iran, the deadly outbreak has not been contained in the Iranian capital Tehran, the head of the city’s coronavirus taskforce said.
Iran maintains that a comprehensive political solution with the engagement of all Afghan groups is the best guarantee for sustainable peace in the war-torn country, the top Iranian diplomat said.
Dozens of energy projects were inaugurated in Tehran and Gilan provinces on Tuesday, namely 28 related to power and water worth $22.1 million.
According to the Energy Ministry news portal Paven, electricity projects in Tehran Province included eight small-scale power stations with distributed generation system, 16 power supply projects plus network modification and optimization.
The first phase of water transfer project from Mamlou Dam in the capital to downstream industries via 16.5 kilometers of transmission line was among the new projects. It will supply water to Abbasabad Industrial Town and sand mines nearby.
The second phase that includes a 6.5-km pipeline is expected to be completed by March 2021 and transfer water to Shahed and Damavand power plants. When the 23-km transmission line is in place it will annually supply 7 million cubic meters of water.
Average rainfall since the beginning of the current water year in September slightly increased water stored in dams. According to data from the Iran Water Management Company, dams now hold 26.7 billion cubic meters of water up 1% compared to the same time a year ago, ISNA reported.
A total of 185,000 tons of different kinds of cleansers worth $76 million were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Nov. 20) to register a 7% and 14% year-on-year rises in weight and value respectively.
A total of 872,914 tons of non-oil commodities worth $460 million were exported from Bandar Lengeh port city in the southern Hormozgan Province during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 20-Nov. 20), registering a 62% and 117% growth in tonnage and value respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The Statistical Center of Iran has published its latest report on home and land prices as well as rents in Iran’s urban areas during the second quarter of the current fiscal year (June 21-Sept. 21).
According to the report published on the website of SCI, the average price of each square meter of land or land of a rundown residential property (residential units that are considered old to a degree that only the underlying land is useful for construction) in Iranian cities went up by 101.8% during the second quarter compared with the corresponding period of the year before.
Prices increased by 28.4% compared with the preceding quarter (Q1 of the current Iranian year.)
The minimum price of each square meter of land or land of a rundown property in the capital city stood at 1.13 million rials ($4.43) while the maximum was at 1.55 billion rials ($6,078), bringing the average to 73.34 million rials ($287).
Nurses received more than 55 trillion rials ($220 million) in merit pay in the last fiscal month (ended Nov. 20), says Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the head of Plan and Budget Organization.
Iran’s commercial exchanges with the US stood at $23.8 million during the first 10 months of 2020 to register a 50.35% decline compared with the corresponding period of 2019.
With a 40% inflation rate and a 25% rise in salaries, the purchasing power of wage earners will shrink by 15% in the next fiscal year (starting March 21, 2021), says Feryal Mostofi, a member of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
“The next fiscal year’s budget (March 2021-22) has been set at 24,000 trillion rials ($92.3 billion) whereas the gross domestic product of the country is 32,000 trillion rials ($123.07 billion), which shows that the government budget accounts for 76% of GDP and that the government is in control of three-fourths of the economy,” she was quoted as saying by ILNA.
Mostofi noted that the budget consists of two parts: the general budget and the budget of state companies, banks and for-profit organizations.
The average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending Dec. 20, which marks the end of the ninth Iranian month, increased by 30.5% compared with the corresponding period of last year, latest data released by the Statistical Center of Iran show.
SCI had put the average annual inflation rate for the preceding Iranian month that ended on Nov. 20 at 29%.
The consumer inflation for the month under review (Nov. 21-Dec. 20) registered an increase of 44.8% compared with the similar month of the previous Iranian year.
A broad range stocks rallied in Tehran on Tuesday but sentiment was high for the small cap stocks as seen in most recent sessions.
Rising demand for shares of smaller listed companies pushed up the equal-weighted index of Tehran Stock Exchange by 1.76%. The index gives the same weight to all stocks irrespective of their market capitalization.
Buoyed by bank and auto stocks, the main gauge of the TSE, TEDPIX, closed Tuesday's session in positive territory after lethargic performance in the past few sessions. The market-cap weighted TEDPIX gained 8,576 points or 0.6% to close trade at 1,444,968 points.
The law to tax transactions conducted via point-of-sale (POS) machines will come into force from the next calendar month starting Jan. 20, the Central Bank of Iran vice governor for IT affairs said.
Newcomers wanting to apply for POS or other payment gateways have to first file tax returns and those already own the payment instrument will be automatically eligible for tax, Mehran Maharamian said.
He said the regulator will block the POS machines of those who fail to provide the Iranian National Tax Administration ID information needed to file tax returns, the CBI public relations office said.
A board member of Tehran Stock Exchange says there are plans to revise rules guiding the performance of market makers in the stock market.
Market makers have come under mounting criticism due to their poor performance in balancing supply and demand.
"Given the drawbacks in the performance of market makers, there are proposals based on which new guidelines will be developed," Javad Eshqi-Nejad was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Efforts to import vaccines to fight the deadly coronavirus pandemic have so far been in vain due to blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering watchdog, the government spokesman told reports in Tehran on Tuesday.
"With regard to the payment, several attempts to transfer money failed due to [non-compliance with] FATF standards and [US] sanctions," Ali Rabi'ie told a virtual press conference, IRNA reported.
He said not accepting FATF norms has hurt Iran's financial transactions "even at times when the US sanctions are not an obstacle."
Rabi'ie, however, stressed that the Rouhani administration is determined to buy the vaccine even if the payment risks are high. He did not elaborate.
Iran’s first space innovation center was launched in Tehran to increase support for tech firms and startups working on space technologies and their commercialization.
Sharif University of Technology and Iran Space Agency have set up the center, Mehr News Agency reported.
On Monday, Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, Information and Communications Technologies Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi and a board member of the university, Rouhollah Dehqani, attended the official inauguration of the center.
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