President: Single-digit inflation rate to reduce investment risks

Tehran, Dec 4, IRNA – President Hassan Rouhani stressed that a single-digit inflation rate will reduce investment risks for both domestic and foreign companies. Addressing the Majlis open session here on Sunday when he was presenting the next Iranian calendar year budget bill to the parliament, he said the materialization of eight percent economic growth which is deemed as necessity by the Sixth Development Plan will come true only through reinforcing the basics of infra-structural economy. He expressed happiness over the fact that his government has managed to improve economic stability and predictability by reaching a single-digit inflation rate. He stressed that the achievement came despite the fact that the government suffered from growth minus employment for a long period which spanned from 2005-2012. President Rouhani further said that the huge number of educated people who are joining the labour market with simultaneous growing rate of women’s economic contributions hassled to remarkable increase growth in the country’s economic growth in the past eight seasons. He went on to note that thanks to the openings happened to the country after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year, Iran has managed to increase the volume of its oil production thus reducing the negative impact of low oil prices on domestic economy. With positive prospect for entrepreneurship emerging in the country in spring (March 21-June 20, 2016), the President added, the economic growth stood at 4.4 percent with the figure for industrial sectors standing at 4.2 percent. He said the figures paved the way for accomplishment of 5 percent or even higher growth rate for the current year. Elsewhere in his remarks, President Rouhani went on to point to his government’s achievements in public health areas and said that in the past three years 74.4 percent of population have received targeted health services. In agricultural sector, he said, the government has managed to focus on projects to safeguard and improve water and soil resources and also increase wheat production. As for oil and gas sectors, he said in post-sanctions era industry has increased its production of crude oil from 2.7 million barrels per day in the first half of 2013 to 3.8 million barrels per day in September 2016. President Rouhani presented the draft budget for the next Iranian year (to start March 21, 2017) to the country’s Majlis (Parliament) on Sunday. As per the internal regulations of Majlis, the administration should present the annual budget bill to the parliament by December 5 each year. The Iranian Lawmakers will have ten days for discussions on the bill in the subcommittees of the parliament. The subcommittees will then review lawmakers' suggestions and finalize a report to a parliamentary ad hoc committee reviewing the budget within 15 days. The committee should discuss the budget bill within 15 days and provide its final report for a second reading in the open session of Majlis. Parliamentarians will then confer the final bill. If approved, the budget bill will then be sent to the country’s Guardian Council, whose approval is needed for the bill to be signed into law. On Thursday, the president announced the budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year of 1396 (March 21, 2017-March 20, 2018) is 3,200,000 billion rials (about 100 billion dollars). The president said the administration will allocate 600,000 billion rials for development projects and the budget is hoped to be met. He added that the budget pays special attention to five sectors, including employment, water, sewage treatment, the environment and railway, as they will be government priorities in the next year and government approach in the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2016-21) will be in their favor. 1378/IRNA