IRAN – Central Bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani predicted Iran's inflation rate will drop to 10.5 percent by the end of the current Iranian year, which is on March 20, 2010.
JOMHURI-YE ESLAMI
– "The money supply growth in the country's economy will rise to 23 percent by the end of the Iranian year … it was 16 percent at the end of the last year," said the Central Bank governor Bahmani.
JAVAN
– Iran's total external debts at the first quarter of the current Iranian year has reached to about $21.5 billion, according to a report published by Iran's Central Bank.
QODS
– "Settling the Caspian Sea's legal regime should be only done by its littoral states," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.
DONYA-YE EQTESAD
– The daily Hamshahri has been closed down for carrying a picture of a temple of the banned Baha'i faith.
KAYHAN
– A group of clerics gathered in front of the Yemeni embassy in Tehran to protest against the killing of Shi'ite Muslims in the country.
EBTEKAR
– Parliament speaker Ali Larijani criticised the current political environment in Iran, saying peace and calm among political factions needed to be restored.
((Tehran newsroom, +98 21 8820 8770; editing by David Stamp))
