Central Bank of Iran: Liquidity Crosses $350 Billion

EghtesadOnline: The total volume of liquidity in Iran stood at about 15.82 quadrillion rials ($358.72 billion) at the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year on June 21, the Central Bank of Iran announced.

News ID: ۷۴۵۸۲۳

08 August 2018

This signifies a year-on-year growth of 20.4%, the regulator said in its latest report published on its official news website.

As high as that number is, it was actually lower than the annual growth registered during the corresponding period of last year, which was equal to 24.1%. This is due to the focus of the administration of President Hassan Rouhani on curbing the liquidity surge that is posing a serious risk to the economy.

The CBI report said the total volume of liquidity at the end of Q1 increased by 3.4% compared with the end of the last fiscal year on March 20, 2018. That is while the same number was registered at 4.9% the year before, Financial Tribune reported.

At about 13.76 quadrillion rials ($311.87 billion), quasi-money constituted the overwhelming share of the total volume of liquidity at the close of Q1 with the share of money amounting to 2.05 quadrillion rials ($46.46 billion).

At 25%, the annual growth of money was more accentuated than quasi-money at 19.7%. In the previous year, quasi-money had grown by 24.6% YOY compared to money's 20.7% growth.

By the end of Q1, the total volume of assets and liabilities of the banking system stood at about 36.04 quadrillion rials ($816.86 billion), up by 26.2% compared to the end of last year's Q1.

Liabilities of the non-government sector to the banking system at about 11.05 quadrillion rials ($250.45 billion) that registered an annual rise of 18.8% accounted for the bulk of assets, followed by about 8.18 quadrillion rials ($185.40 billion) of foreign assets that registered an annual rise of 41.1%.

The total volume of CBI's assets and liabilities stood at about 6.91 quadrillion rials ($156.61 billion) by June 21. That was 31.9% higher compared to the end of last year's first quarter.

The central bank held about 4.59 quadrillion rials ($104.03 billion) in foreign assets at the end of the third month of the current fiscal year to signify a year-on-year jump of 34.7%.

The debts of the government sector, including the government and state-run companies and institutions, to the central bank amounted to 614.5 trillion rials ($13.92 billion), down by 2.1% compared to last year. It was dwarfed by banks' debts to the central bank at about 1.39 quadrillion rials ($31.50 billion), showing an annual surge of 37.8%.

The total volume of banknotes and coins at the end of the third month of the current year stood at 562.9 trillion rials ($12.75 billion), higher by 5.2% compared to the same month of the year before. Of this amount, 406 trillion rials ($9.20 billion) were held by the people, up 19.4% year-on-year and 114.3 trillion rials ($2.59 billion) and 42.6 trillion rials ($965.54 billion) were held by the banks and the central bank, down by 8% and 39.8% respectively.

According to the report, banks and credit institutions held a total of about 1.66 quadrillion rials ($37.62 billion) in deposits with the central bank by the end of this year's Q1, up by 20.1% compared to the year before.

At about 1.61 quadrillion rials ($36.49 billion), a majority were in the form of legal reserves, up by 22.2% annually, and the rest amounting to 52.8 trillion rials ($1.19 billion) was sight deposits that dropped by 21.5% compared to that of last year.