Rouhani: Inflation Cut To 19.5%
President Hassan Rouhani said his administration has cut Iran’s galloping inflation rate to 19.5 percent month-on-month, IRNA reported.
“The month-on-month inflation was slashed from 43 percent to 19.5 percent” in the last month of the last Iranian calendar year which ended March 21, 2014, the petro energy news network SHANA quoted the president as saying on Saturday.
Rouhani said the year-on-year inflation rate was also reduced to 32 percent, which would be cut to 25 percent in the current calendar year.
The president added that his administration will then focus on creating jobs.
Rouhani also said that fuel prices must become realistic in free zones where fuel smuggling is rife in order to bring a halt to this phenomenon.
He said residents of free zones need to be paid fuel subsidies.
Iran, G5+1 Continue Expert-Level Talks
Meanwhile, Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) continued their expert-level talks for the second consecutive day in Vienna on Friday.
Head of Iran’s nuclear negotiation expert team, Hamid Baeidinejad, told IRNA that both sides discussed technical issues on Friday for more than eight hours and discussions will continue on Saturday.
The results of expert talks will be reported to political directors and they will be discussed during Iran-G5+1 meeting of deputy foreign ministers on April 7-9 to be presided by Foreign Minister Mohammad JavadZarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, a senior member of Iranˈs nuclear negotiating team told IRNA on Thursday that the talks are aimed at finding out a comprehensive solution to the issue within framework of the Geneva Accord.
He further noted that all the technical issues referred by the political managers to the experts will be dealt during the ongoing expert-level talks.
Asked whether Arak Heavy Water Reactor will be included in the expert-level talks, he said that technical aspects of the issue will be reviewed by the experts.
R.S