TEHRAN - In the ninth meeting of the country’s economists with the governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in Tehran on Wednesday, various issues like CBI actions for stabilizing the currency market, open market operations, the importance of non-oil exports and the recent FATF decision were explored.

According to CBI office of public relations, in the meeting Abdolnaser Hemmati underlined the country’s current economic conditions and said: “Considering the country’s current conditions [mentioning the U.S. sanctions and FATF decision for blacklisting Iran], the central bank has made more efforts to stabilize the forex markets.”

Mentioning the criticism toward the volume of liquidity, the chief banker noted that although 28 percent is a somehow high level of liquidity growth, but in the past 50 years the average level of liquidity growth has been 25 percent and only three percent deviation in the current situation means that the CBI is trying its best to control the situation.

He further noted that an under 20 percent inflation is not unreachable for the upcoming Iranian calendar year.

The economists at the meeting also appreciated the central bank's efforts for maintaining the balance in the foreign exchange market through setting up the integrated forex market as well as open market operations, saying that these are two of the most important outcomes of CBI’s monetary and currency policymaking.

Reforming the structure of the country’s banking system, curbing inflation, removing barriers in the way of production, improving non-oil exports, and liquidity-control methods were also among the issues covered in this three-hour session.

The CBI hosts periodic meetings with the country’s senior economists and economic analysts to explore ways of improving the country’s economic conditions and find solutions for the monetary problems.

The previous session of the economists’ gathering at the CBI was held in late June 2019.

EF/MA