CBI Says Will Publish Balance Sheet Soon

The Central Bank of Iran in a statement has assured that its unpublished balance sheets will finally be made public soon adding that the delay in its release has nothing to do with the government's debts to the CBI as was claimed in a recent report.

On Tuesday, Payesh news website published a report claiming that the governor of the CBI Valiollah Seif had sent a letter to President Hassan Rouhani, formally asking him to clear the government debts to the central bank.

Citing "an informed source" the website claimed it "would not look good" for the government if the CBI balance sheets came out because they would reveal the scale and scope of the government's unmet commitments.

"Before anything, it must be noted that such a letter does not exist," the central bank statement said. "Therefore referring to a fictitious and false letter and publishing a news item based on it is far from professionalism and ethics."

The statement then delves into the matter of CBI's unpublished balance sheets (the last one was published in 2013), promising that statements for 2014 and 2015 will soon be made public.

"Unlike false claims made in the news article, the general assembly relating to 2014 was convened in early 2016 with the goal of approving the CBI balance sheet of the same year. The president was also present and the event was covered by the media."

"The balance sheet for 2014 will be finalized and published soon," the central bank said.

Furthermore, it said the CBI balance sheet for 2015 "has been drawn up and is being finalized" and the relevant general assembly will be held in the foreseeable future.

The CBI notes that in contrast to what was claimed, a hiatus in the publication of its balance sheets since 2013 is "natural" and there have been precedents in the past when balance sheets were published with delays.

"The aforementioned delay was because the intention was to publish the finalized data. To meet the data needs of economic experts and pundits, the relevant economic data will be published in the CBI's other publications," adds the statement.

In conclusion the statement says "the CBI's approach toward publishing economic statistics has been clear and linking balance sheets to repayment of   government debt is utterly false."

It is said that the government owes over one quadrillion rials ($29 billion) to the banks alone, a legacy it inherited from its predecessor.