Iran’s chief banker rejects IMF estimate about dwindling reserves
Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor Abdolnasser Hemmati has rejected as flawed a recent estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which suggests Iran’s foreign currency reserves declined significantly in 2020 to only $4 billion.
Hemmati wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday that IMF’s estimate about the state of Iran’s reserves is reflective of the organization’s mistaken approach to the Iranian economy.
Hemmati suggested that the IMF had used flawed and unverified data to calculate the current amount of reserves held by the CBI.
The chief banker had earlier criticized the IMF for refusing to process an Iranian request for a $5-billion loan that the country needs to tackle the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The publication of a mistaken estimate by this Fund, without gaining the verification of the CBI, is not becoming of the IMF just like their discriminatory behavior,” read part of Hemmati’s post.
In a report published earlier this month about general economic indicators in economies of the Middle East and Central Asia region, the IMF said that Iran’s official reserves had declined from $122.5 billion in 2018 to $12.4 billion in 2019. Tables published in the report showed that the reserves had further dwindled by over 67.7% last year to reach $4 billion.
That comes as Iran reportedly holds over $40 billion in funds in other countries where banks refuse to process the resources over fears that they might face US penalties.
The US sanctions on Iran have cut off the country’s banking system from the rest of the world with private and state-owned banks unable to process international payments.
However, the new IMF data on Iran shows the country was in positive economic growth in 2020 after the US-based organization revised up its estimates about the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) in last year.
Tables of the recent IMF report show that Iran’s GDP would grow by 2.5% this year and by another 2.1% in 2022.
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