Iran’s foreign assets exceeded 661 trillion rials ($73 billion) during the 12 months to October 23, up 27.4 percent compared with the figure for the same period last year, according to a report released by the Central Bank of Iran.
Foreign assets stood at 518 trillion rials during the 12 months to October 23, 2006.
Measures taken by the top bank led to a decline in dues and arrears by 40 trillion rials to 90 trillion rials during the 12 months to October 23, the Persian daily ’Iran’ reported on Sunday.
The figure stood at over 100 trillion rials during the 12 months to October 23, 2006 and close to 130 trillion rials until the end of September 22, 2007.
In other words, banks’ arrears and dues decreased by 16.6 percent.
Meanwhile, CBI put liquidity at 1,480 trillion rials during the 12 months to October 23.
Liquidity rose by 37.3 percent compared with over 400 trillion rials during the same period last year.
Growth in liquidity has reached alarming level in the country. Liquidity, which feeds inflation, grew between 40 and 50 percent in the past two years.
Iran’s economy is currently grappling with chronic inflation and high liquidity and economists believe the national economy is suffering from Dutch disease.
Dutch disease is an economic concept that tries to explain the seeming relationship between the exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector. The theory is that an increase in revenues from natural resources will deindustrialize a nation’s economy by raising the exchange rate, which makes the manufacturing sector less competitive.

Northern and northeastern regions will witness snowfalls today.

Diesel consumption in power plants, industrial units and some households has reached a record high of 130 million liters per day.
According to PIN, unprecedented weather which has hit the country over the past two weeks led to diesel consumption reaching an all-time high of 130.9 million liters per day on Wednesday. The earlier highest consumption figure was recorded on January 5.
It is predicted that the recent rise in consumption will continue as a new cold snap is expected in the country.
Northern and northeastern regions will witness snowfalls today, according to a forecast by the Meteorological Organization.
Heavy snowfalls and freezing weather conditions, unprecedented in the past 50 years, made the Oil Ministry redirect gas supplies from industrial units including cement, sugar and steel mills. The factories have to use alternative fuels including diesel to operate.
Meanwhile, first deputy head of the Natural Disaster Headquarters said that natural gas rationing in some regions is likely as the country will experience sharp drop in temperatures this week.
Mehdi Hashemi noted that the move is aimed at preventing disruptions in gas supplies to households.
Drop in temperatures coupled with rain or snowfall increase household consumption by 13 million cubic meters per day.
The cold weather and halt in Turkmenistan’s 23 million cubic meters of natural gas to Iran left many families in northern county without gas for over two weeks.

The Ecuadorian government plans to open a trade office in Iran in February, President Rafael Correa announced.
“In February we’ll be inaugurating the trade office in Tehran,“ Correa said on his regular Saturday radio program.
Ecuador’s president has expressed his wish to diversify his country’s trade relations with countries of the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the Latin American news agency Prensa Latina reported.
Correa’s relations with Iran have been criticized by the opposition because of Tehran government’s strong political differences with the United States, Ecuador’s main trade partner.
Correa said that he will promote trade relations with Iran since it is a complementary market for Ecuadorian exports, and has defended Tehran’s right to atomic energy for peaceful purposes, even though Washington is concerned that it is bent on making weapons.
The Ecuadorian president seems to be following the lead of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has forged trade and political ties with Iran.
President Ahmadinejad attended Correa’s swearing-in ceremony last year.
Ecuador, with an area of 256,370 square kilometers, has a population of close to 14 million.
Ecuador has substantial oil resources and rich agricultural areas. Because the country exports primary products such as oil, bananas, flowers and shrimp, fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact.
In April 2007, after winning a referendum on constitutional reform, President Correa announced that he no longer intended that the country make repayments to the IMF or deal with the World Bank.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance has suggested extending the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline to Southeast Asia.
“We are positive we can take the pipeline to Southeast Asia, to countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore,“ Davoud Danesh-Jafari said Saturday.
In June 2005 Iran and India signed an agreement which outlined the terms for India to purchase five million metric tons per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for 25 years at $3.215 per million British thermal unit(mBtu), MNA reported.
The 2005 contract had linked LNG prices with the price of Brent crude oil with a cap at $31 per barrel which Iran wanted to raise to $55, upping the LNG price to $4.78 per mBtu.
Danesh-Jafari explained that the 2005 agreement was a memorandum of understanding that was never ratified and the price will be fixed when the agreement is finalized.
Meanwhile, the minister said that the value of trade between Iran and India currently stands at about nine billion dollars.
He noted that if Iranian and Indian banks became more active they could play an important role in increasing trade between the two countries.
“Iran and India are currently working on a lot of bilaterally agreed projects. Once these projects are finalized the volume of trade between the two countries is sure to increase considerably,“ he added.
During his five-day visit to India, Danesh-Jafari met his Indian counterpart, P. Chidambaram.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani newspaper Daily Times reported that British Petroleum has voiced readiness to take part in the construction of the IPI project, known also as ’Peace Pipeline’, in Pakistani territory.
An unnamed senior BP official has noted that it is ready to participate in laying the gas pipeline across the Pakistani territory under the Iran-Pakistan-India project.
He noted that the president of the British Petroleum Company, UK, Tariq Khamisani, had called on Pakistan’s caretaker petroleum minister, Ahsanullah Khan, last
week and discussed matters relating to promoting Pak-BP cooperation in the oil and gas sector, including the laying of the gas pipeline for the ’Peace Pipeline’.

The number of ATMs is expected to reach 12 million by 2010.

Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor has assured the people that they would not face a shortage of banknotes or problems caused by the circulation of mutilated and torn bills in the closing days of the current Iranian year to March 19.
CBI’s banknote reserves are sufficient, Tahmasb Mazaheri told MNA Sunday.
He described the issuance of banknotes in 50,000-rial denomination as an effective way of solving the dilemma of mutilated bills. There are also other options such as the use of credit cards for payments, he maintained.
The top banker explained that ATM systems in banks would render proper services to the public during the yearend and Norouz holidays. Banks will assign guards to control the systems so that clients would not face problems, he pointed out.
Mazaheri explained that since cash withdrawals from ATM systems increase with the onset of the new year holidays and during the holidays, the amount of cash might be exhausted. Therefore, the guards would inform bank tellers about this.
Noting that both travelers’ checks (TCs) and banknotes are currently used for making payments, the official expressed hope that TCs would not be used as banknotes during the next Iranian year to March 2009. Rather, they should be used for traveling purposes, he underlined.
Mazaheri said that the ATM cards should be made available on a large scale and all shopping malls, stores, etc. should be equipped with payment systems via cards.
The number of ATMs and Point-of-Sale (POS) cards will reach 12 million by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan in 2010.
However, ATM system is not up to the mark in Iran, while the number of POS machines remains low. Long queues at ATM booths have gradually become a permanent feature in the sprawling capital.
Iranian banks have been unable to issue international credit cards in recent years largely due to the unilateral US sanctions and other constraints associated with interaction between non-usury banking rules and international banking systems.

Ways of expanding economic ties between Iran and China were discussed in a meeting of the two countries’ joint chamber of commerce this weekend.
According to ISNA, the meeting was attended by the new Chinese ambassador to Tehran, chairman of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce Industries and Mines, head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs and members of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce.
Head of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce Asadollah Asgaroladi said that the value of Iran and China trade transactions increased from $1.5 billion in 2001 to $15 billion in 2006.
He referred to banking ties as one the major impediments to expansion of economic relations, adding that while a number of Chinese banks have reduced the problems, the obstacles have not yet been completely removed.
In December, Iranians importing goods from China started complaining about restrictions on trade in the Asian country since they faced difficulties in opening letters of credit with 10 Chinese banks.
Although several delegations sent by the Iranian chamber to Beijing managed to convince the Chinese officials to lift restrictions imposed by four banks, restrictions by the remaining six banks are still in force.
“We have attached great importance to increasing economic relations with China, so please tell us how we can purchase commodities from China under such banking conditions?“ he asked the Chinese participants.
He noted that western countries are worried about expansion of Iran-China relations. China should seize the opportunity to raise the value of trade with Iran to $50 billion.
He said Chinese economic sector should not politicize trade ties.
Meanwhile, chairman of Iran’s chamber of Commerce Industry and Mines referred to the high potential of China in the economic sector, noting that proper use of human resource is one of the main factors which can help China achieve development.
He noted that the long-term interests of Iran and China should lead them to remove the obstacles to expanding bilateral ties.
Deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, Mehdi Mirabotalebi said at the meeting that the value of bilateral trade transactions will exceed $20 billion this year, adding the process may not be continued because of the current problems.
He noted that signing a number of agreements between the two countries on various projects, worth $30 billion, have been postponed due to banking problems.

Recent precipitations have saved the country from drought and removed anxieties about water shortage, Deputy Energy Minister for water affairs Rasoul Zargar noted.
Speaking to reporters, he noted that precipitation in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (which ends March 20) declined by 50 percent compared with the normal situation. “If rainfalls continue at the present rate until the end of current Iranian year, water shortage will be averted,“ he told IRNA.
According to him, over 13.5 billion cubic meters of water have been stored in dams. “Dams across the nations have been filled to over 50 percent of their capacities so far,“ he said, adding most of the recent precipitations occurred in the form of snow.
He anticipated that once the snow begins to melt, water levels in dams will increase.
He further disclosed that a project is being implemented to recycle treated sewage for the first time in the country.
“Over 90 reservoir and 150 earth fill dams are under construction nationwide with a total storage capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of water,“ he added.
Earlier Zargar stated that Iran is the top constructor of water-related structures among member states of the Group of 15 (G-15).
“Iran has two decades of experience in dam construction, making our country the top constructor of water-related structures,“ he said.
The official explained that the 19 member states are to create a mechanism for supplying financial resources for water feasibility and executive projects.