Iran’s deficit up by 70 percent in one year

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 29 – There has been a whopping 69 percent increase in Iran’s state budget deficit during the current year, according to an official government report. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 29 – There has been a whopping 69 percent increase in Iran’s state budget deficit during the current year, according to an official government report.

The report was based on estimates for the current Iranian calendar year, ending March 20, and the figure was expected to rise even further by the end of the year, the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami wrote on Saturday.

The sharp surge in the country’s annual deficit means that in the currently year the government will be lagging more than 71 trillion Rials – approximately 7.1 billion dollars.

Last year, the state deficit figures were considerably lower, standing at 42 trillion Rials.

The widening deficit comes despite a large increase in revenue as a result of high oil prices on the international markets.

Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took office in August, had promised that he would reduce state deficit and work to increase the national turnover as president.

But the rising tensions in Iran’s external relations since the hard-liners’ power sweep in June have had a markedly negative impact on the economy. The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has been badly affected, dropping 20 percent since Ahmadinejad’s election in June. Some experts have put the value of capital flight since June at a staggering 200 billion dollars.