Iran has now passed the fifth peak of its coronavirus outbreak with the viral infection on the decline all across the country, spokesman for the National Coronavirus Headquarters, Alireza Raeisi, said on Thursday.
Iran has now passed the fifth peak of its coronavirus outbreak with the viral infection on the decline all across the country, spokesman for the National Coronavirus Headquarters, Alireza Raeisi, said on Thursday.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need for the resumption of nuclear negotiations, expressing the international body’s support for dialogue as a consolidating principle.
Water is closely linked with industrial development and economic growth.
The director of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa) added that water supply and related services are an indispensable part of development projects and investing in water management and services is necessary for sustained economic growth.
“As long as water supply and water resource management issues are not streamlined, economic growth cannot be promoted and production and productivity cannot increase in economic sectors,” Qasem Taqizadeh Khamesi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Neglecting water issues can have potentially catastrophic impacts on economies and people’s livelihoods, and could reverse hard-won gains in poverty reduction, job creation and development, he added.
Oil prices rose on Friday on growing signs of tightness in US markets after Hurricane Ida hit offshore output, although benchmarks were heading for weekly losses of nearly 1% after China announced plans to sell crude from its strategic reserves.
Domestic companies and manufacturers are supplying about 80% of the parts and equipment required by Isfahan Oil Refining Company in central Isfahan Province, commercial director of the company said.
“Many parts had been supplied by European countries prior to the reimposition of the US sanctions on Iran’s economy and oil industry in 2018. However, following the efforts of Iranian experts, engineers and industrialists, several parts and equipment used in the Isfahan refinery have been indigenized,” Majid Shahsavari was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
According to the official, while the quality and performance of the locally-made parts are not inferior to those of foreign counterparts, their final prices are much lower than the foreign ones.
A total of 350,239 tons of goods have been exported from Iran through Mirjaveh border crossing located in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province to the neighboring Pakistan since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), to register a 160% surge compared with the similar period of last year, a local official said on Tuesday.
A truckload of drugs and medical equipment has been seized by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration at Lotfabad Customs Terminal located in Khorasan Razavi Province before being smuggled to Turkmenistan.
The Education and Human Resources Institute, affiliated with the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, is scheduled to hold a webinar on Belt and Road Initiative.
Direct flights from Ahvaz, the capital of southwestern Khuzestan Province, to the Turkish capital Istanbul will be operated from Nov. 4 by Iran Airtour, according to the head of Ahvaz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
The producer price index in the four-quarter period ending June 21, which marks the end of the first quarter of the current Iranian year, grew by 60.4% compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The index calculated for the four-quarter period leading to March 20, marking the end of Q4 of last year, had increased by 46.7%.
The lowest and highest annualized producer inflation was registered for services and mining sectors with 42% and 112.3%, respectively.
PPI (using fiscal 2016-17 as the base year) stood at 419.4 in Q1 (March 21-June 21), indicating a 10.1% increase compared with the previous quarter and a 73% growth over the same quarter of last year, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.
The lowest and highest quarter-on-quarter producer inflation was registered for production, transmission and distribution of electricity with 1.3% and mining with 38.7%, respectively.
The import of cheap and low-quality footwear has caused serious damage to domestic shoe industry, says Ali Lashgari, a board member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
According to the official, from fiscal 2013-14 to fiscal 2020-21 (last Iranian year), a total of $2.12 billion worth of shoes were imported to Iran, mostly from China, the UAE, Turkey, Italy, India and Thailand.
“Considering the role of the UAE in [re-]export of Chinese products to Iran, it is estimated that about 88% of imported shoes come from China and the rest from Turkey, Italy, Thailand and India,” he was quoted as saying by ICCIMA’s news portal.
Italy has the highest average shoe export price of $57.72 per pair. The average for Chinese-made shoes was at $4.68. For Turkey, it stands at $3.38 and India $9.5. The average price of a pair of imported shoes in the world increased from $9.7 to $11.2 from 2010 to 2018.
A total of 46.68 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were imported to Iran from Feb. 3 to Sept. 10.
The budget deficit is on course to reach 4,640 trillion rials ($16.79 billion) in the fiscal 2021-22 while the government is also facing an unfunded deficit of roughly 30%, or 3,830 trillion rials ($13.86 billion).
According to a report by Majlis Research Center citing the Supreme Audit Court of Iran, 27% of projected revenues compared with 44% of projected expenditure as per the budget law materialized in the first two months of the current fiscal year (March 21-May 21).
Should the current situation persist, i.e., projected revenues will fail to materialize and give rise to a higher budget deficit by the end of the current fiscal year (March 20, 2022), it added.
Closing unauthorized cryptomining farms to prevent blackouts remains on the agenda of the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) as demand for electricity remains high.
As per a recent Tavanir report, the total number of detected centers has reached 5,380 and 216,758 pieces of hardware have been seized from the illegal operators, ISNA reported.
The farms' collective power consumption is equal to the consumption of 800,000 households or 2 million people, the utility company said.
The government is set to allot the so-called Justice Shares to new eligible groups and those who failed to receive the free shares when they were first given to the public.
The Minister of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare Hojjat Abdolmaleki announced the plan earlier in the week that was confirmed by the Majlis Economic Commission.
Justice Shares are shares of government-owned companies given free to the six lowest income deciles 15 years ago but were not allowed to be traded in the stock market until May 2020.
More than 49 million Iranians own the shares and estimations suggest that the value of portfolios of shareholders has grown almost ten times.
In a talk with Tasnim News Agency, Mehdi Toghiani, a member of the Majlis Economic Commission estimated that 20 million more people are eligible to receive Justice Shares.
Banks and credit institutions gave 9,007.8 trillion rials ($33 billion) in loans in the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 21-August 22).
Lending was 51.3% or 3,054.9 trillion rials ($11b) higher compared to the corresponding period of last year, the Central Bank of Iran reported.
As always, a big segment of money went for working capital accounting for 67.8% or 6,103.6 trillion rials ($22.5b) of all lending in the five months.
Mineral and industrial companies were the main recipients of the working capital loans, borrowing 2,191.8 trillion rials ($8b) or 35.9% of the total in this category.
Credit to mines and industries stood at 2,755.6 trillion rials ($10b) in the period.
Foreign exchange rates extended gains on Thursday after the dollar advanced above 270,000 rials a session before.
The greenback closed more than 1% higher or 2,900 rials, reaching 278,200 rials in Tehran’s open market after vacillating between 269,000-272,000 rials for ten days before jumping to 275,300 rials on Wednesday
The euro was up 0.5% or 1,570 rials to fetch 326,960 rials. The UK pound sterling was worth 381,290 rials, rising 0.62% or 2,370 rials and the UAE dirham closed more than 0.5% higher, gaining 400 rials to be quoted at 76,200 rials.
Moscow expects that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s leaders will decide on the start of Tehran’s admission to the organization at the Dushanbe summit on September 16-17, Special Envoy of the Russian President for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyor Khakimov told TASS on Thursday.
“The accession process is not a one-time step. There is a certain procedure stipulated in the SCO documents. We expect that in Dushanbe, the Council of Heads of State will make a decision on the commencement of Iran’s admission to the SCO, which means the launching of the negotiation process to agree on the documents according to which Iran will accede to the legal and contractual framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” the Russian envoy said.
Despite initiatives by Iran's Department of Environment and anti-air pollution campaigners, the use of bicycles and related projects has failed to take off across the country.
As a cheap means of transportation, cycling is regaining its 19th-century status because of the environmental challenges facing the world, such as high air pollution and global warming, which are posing threats to people’s lives.
However, compared to the population of Iranian metropolises, the number of cyclists is very low despite the heavy traffic, high level of air pollution and the risk of Covid-19 infections in public means of transportation.
Officials in Tehran, the capital city, which has paradoxically pioneered the establishment of cycling lanes and amenities, no longer appear enthusiastic about promoting the eco-friendly mode of transportation.
Parviz Sarvari, the deputy head of Tehran City Council, told YJC, “Expansion of cycling is an ideal plan for a polluted city like Tehran, but it is not a priority.”
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