TEHRAN – The top bankers of Iran Muhammad Reza Farzin and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al-Thani on Saturday stressed the need to boost bilateral cooperation in the banking and monetary fields.
Highlighting the development of banking cooperation and joint investment after the transfer of $6 billion of Iranian funds to the account of Iranian banks based in Qatar, the two sides explored avenues for the expansion of banking ties using these financial resources.
As Iran’s foreign exchange resources in Qatar are applicable through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and by opening a Letter of Credit (L/C), technical communications between Qatari banks and six Iranian banks about the issue are ongoing, Iran’s top banker said.
The governor of the Central Bank of Qatar, in his turn, said that his country is committed to its obligations to Iran and there is no obstacle on the path of the development of banking relations between the two countries.
Turning to the fundamental measures taken over the previous days regarding using Iran’s foreign exchange resources in Qatar, Sheikh Bandar said that he will make his utmost efforts to transfer Iran’s assets.
Earlier on Friday, Iran’s top banker met and held talks with the senior officials of IMF and WB and also a number of the governors of the central banks of regional countries and BRICS group of emerging economies in Morocco for enhancing bilateral monetary and banking cooperation.
The IMF and WBG Annual Meetings kicked off in Morocco on October 9 and will run through October 15.
Farzin said that Iran’s economic indicators improved beyond expectations.
The official said that Iran has taken giant strides, especially in the recent years, in the field of curbing inflation and increasing the value of currency unit ‘rials’.
By adopting the appropriate monetary policies such as simultaneous restriction of the balance sheet of banks and the government borrowing from the central bank coupled with increasing revenues helped by selling oil, the indicator of the liquidity growth and inflation has been controlled, Iran’s top banker added.
Turning to a 6.2-percent increase in Iran’s economic growth in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 to June 22, 2023), he said that the Consumers’ Price Index (CPI) and Producers’ Price Index (PPI) have been reduced to 15 and about 34 percent respectively.
The situation of economic growth and inflation control in the country is promising given the available indicators, Farzin emphasized.