Iran foreign currency assets rise 30pc
Afp, Tehran
Iran's foreign currency reserves held in foreign banks have risen by 30 percent to total the equivalent of 558,000 billion rials (61.4 billion dollars) by March 2007 due to high oil prices, a central bank report said on Saturday. The report carried by Fars news agency said this compared with 428,000 billion rials the previous year. In the same period to March 2007 Iran's foreign debts stood at 20 billion dollars, the report said. Iran, heavily reliant on oil exports, has said it would stop pricing its oil in dollars and replace the US currency with the euro in foreign transactions and state-held foreign assets. This was in response to mounting US pressure on its banking system. The report did not indicate how much, if any, of the foreign assets were now in dollars or whether the euro had taken over. Iran is the world's fourth largest crude producer. It is under UN sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work. The sanctions, targeting its nuclear and missile programmes, include a freeze on assets for people involved in these programmes.
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