Tehran warns against any unwise decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors at its upcoming meeting in March, the Iranian top diplomat said.
Tehran warns against any unwise decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors at its upcoming meeting in March, the Iranian top diplomat said.
Iran declared its support for an initiative offered by China to help settle the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, saying it is time for genuine diplomacy to be activated to end the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
The completion of the second phase of a project in Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province will double the storage capacity of Iran’s largest petrochemical hub, managing director of Asalouyeh Petrochemical Green Tanks Company said.
“The new phase includes 13 tanks, of which nine are ready to become operational,” Mohammad Reza Yazdani was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news portal.
Close to 360,000 cubic meters of petrochemical goods can be stored in the region now and the inauguration of the new phase will increase the current capacity to 774,000 cubic meters, he added.
Yazdani said the first phase of the plan was completed seven years ago and helped the region’s firms to add $44 million to their annual revenues and the new phase will double it.
Operations to equip the workshop for the construction of Karoun Nuclear Power Plant have commenced in Darkhovein City, Shadegan County, Khuzestan Province, and contracts for supplying heavy equipment have been finalized with domestic industries, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said.
“The executive operation of the plant with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts started two months ago, which will become fully operational in eight years,” Mohammad Eslami was also quoted as saying by Barq News.
“Based on the schedule, the power station will initially start generating 300 MW of electricity,” he added.
The power plant will be constructed by Iranian experts and engineers with the help of domestic knowledge-based firms and manufacturers.
A total of 352 water and wastewater projects are underway in Hormozgan Province, on which more than $70 million have been spent so far, the managing director of the provincial Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The ongoing projects include 252 water projects in the rural regions, 94 in the urban areas and six wastewater projects that will be completed with about $200 million of credit,” Abdolhamid Hamzehpour was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
“Currently, over 95% of the population of the southern province are provided with piped water,” he added.
Referring to the desalination capacity of Hormozgan, Hamzehpour said the province is a pioneer in desalination, such that desalinated seawater accounts for around 47% of the province's drinking water supply.
Iran and Turkey traded $411.3 million worth of goods in the first month of 2023 to register a 5% year-on-year decline, latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute show.
Iran’s exports stood at $220.92 million, down 16% while imports grew by 13% to $190.38 million.
Iran and Turkey traded $5.35 billion worth of goods in 2022 to register a 12.18% year-on-year rise. Iran’s exports stood at $2.91 billion, up 15.49% while imports grew by 8.47% to $2.44 billion
Bilateral trade stood at $4.77 billion in 2021 to register a 69.12% rise compared with the preceding year. Iranian exports stood at $2.52 billion, up 145.18% year-on-year, while imports grew by 25.5% to $2.25 billion.
“Hotels and Restaurants”, one of 12 groups of goods and services surveyed by the Statistical Center of Iran for calculating the inflation rate, registered an average annualized inflation rate of 76.4% in the 11th month of the current Iranian year (Jan. 21-Feb. 19), the highest among the groups under review.
The month-on-month and year-on-year inflation rates of the group were reported at 3.2% and 78.9% respectively. The YOY inflation was also highest among the groups surveyed.
The 12 groups of the basket of consumer goods and services surveyed by SCI include "food and beverages" with a coefficient of 26.64%, "tobacco" with 0.59%, "clothing and shoes" with 4.78%, “housing and utilities" with 35.5% (highest), "furniture, home appliances and their maintenance" with 3.93%, "health and treatment" with 7.14%, "transportation" with 9.41%, "communications" with 2.87%, "leisure and culture" with 1.65%, "education" with 1.86%, "hotels and restaurants" with 1.44% and "miscellaneous items and services" with 4.18%.
A lingering problem in Iran’s economy since a decade before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, inflation has been fueled by demand pressure, devaluation of the rial, inefficient management of disruptions in the production sector, growth in monetary base and at times the concurrency of these factors.
Governments have taken steps to tackle inflation, for example, by introducing rates for foreign currencies [against the rial] and price controls, and rationing scarce goods, which have had limited success. However, inflation in Iran is impacted by a wide range of economic, political and social factors.
Farzad Javidanrad, a lecturer at the University of Warwick’s Economics Department, prefaced his article for the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad with this note. A translation of the text follows:
The causes of inflation in Iran are complex and multifaceted; attributing the inflation to only one factor is not academically acceptable. Over the past decade, foreign resource restrictions, backbreaking sanctions and supply of money unrelated to production have darkened the prospects of inflation management.
Armenia’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan held a meeting with an Iranian delegation led by Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Minister Solat Mortazavi.
Iran has discovered its first lithium reserve in Hamedan Province, according to Ebrahim Ali Molla-Beigi, director general of the Exploration Affairs Office of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade.
The discovery of this reserve is a promising sign that other similar reserves exist in this province, IRNA reported.
“Iran is one of the few countries that have substantial reserves of rare earth elements and precious metals,” he added.
The official put the newly-found lithium reserve at 8.5 million tons.
Fifteen neighboring countries accounted for 93% and 81.5% of the weight and value of Iran’s agricultural, fisheries, livestock and food exports during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2022-Jan. 20), according to a customs expert.
“A total of 6.25 million tons of agrifood products worth $3.99 billion were exported from Iran during the period, of which 5.8 million tons worth $3.25 billion were exported to the 15 neighboring countries,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Iraq with $1.25 billion was the main export destination for Iranian agrifood products during the period. The UAE with $486.6 million, Pakistan with $350 million, Russia with $317.4 million and Afghanistan with $252.11 million were other main export destinations of Iran’s agricultural and food exports.
Iran’s economy has transitioned from one administration to another and all of them attempted to control the foreign exchange rates against the rial using trial and error in policymaking.
Almost all the heads of the central bank that faced the currency crisis resorted to the same methods, despite knowing the failure of these policies in the previous administrations. It is as if there is no other way to manage the exchange rate in Iran, except by repeating the botched policies of the past. As a result, the vicious cycle of foreign exchange market policy is being repeated over and over again.
Kamran Nadri, an economic expert, prefaced his write-up for the Persian daily Jahan-e Sanat with this note. A translation of the text follows:
The Central Bank of Iran said $2 billion was supplied to the market via the newly-created Iran Center of Exchange (ICE) in the first week of its operation.
From the total forex offered via the ICE $1.474 billion was purchased, IBENA reported. The CBI said the market hosted about $294 million in transactions each day, whereas the average daily supply was near $414 million. The regulator implied that supply was over and above demand.
The figures are seemingly twice the average trade in the Nima market, wherein nearly $200 million was offered daily but $150 million was bought, mostly for paying import bills.
Nima is an online platform affiliated to the CBI through which exporters sell their overseas income in the form of hawala and companies buy for importing goods, machinery, equipment and raw material.
The government can raise up to 2,000 trillion rials ($4.65 billion) from bonds based on the proposed 2023-24 budget. Lawmakers this week approved the cap for government debt.
Bonds are largely offered by the Central Bank of Iran on behalf of the Economy Ministry to raise funds for the government’s deficit spending. Buyers normally are banks, credit institutions, investment funds and institutional investors.
According to ministry data, 704.1 trillion rials ($1.46 billion) bonds have been sold since last March. In addition to bonds, the government sold treasury bills worth 350 trillion rials ($729m) during the period. Treasury bills are underwritten and given to contractors in lieu of unpaid bills.
Per ministry data, banks and credit institutions accounted for 67% of the bonds purchased since the beginning of fiscal 2022-23 while the rest was taken by institutional investors in the bourse.
Tehran Stock Exchange's main index, TEDPIX, gained 29,046.47 points or 1.61% on Tuesday to end at 1,838,119.40. The TSE equal-weighted index was up 0.81%.
About 18.79 billion shares worth 105.9 trillion rials ($235.34 million) changed hands for the day. Trading at TSE and over-the-counter Iran Fara Bourse starts on Saturday and ends Wednesday.
Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company led the winningest as its shares jumped 17.94% to 6,970 rials per share.
A domestic knowledge-based company has produced nanomicelle capsules with the therapeutic effects of turmeric, which have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cancer-prevention properties.
Produced by Exir Nano Sina Company with the support of Iran Nanotechnology Innovation Council, the capsule has been marketed at a low price.
Many studies in the last century have shown the potential effects of curcumin as a valuable adjunctive therapy to supplement the treatment of a wide range of diseases, the news portal of the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology reported.
Curcumin, a carotenoid compound found in turmeric, cannot be absorbed by the body because it does not dissolve in water, but the capsule contains a special kind of curcumin that is soluble in water. Therefore, the solubilization of curcumin in an aqueous environment is very important.
Economic growth returns to the Pacific region, said a World Bank economist for the Pacific on Tuesday. The World Bank's lead economist for the Pacific David Gould said that debt and inflation remain key concerns for countries such as Fiji, according to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation.
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