Oil Income to Account for Only 1/4 of Next Year’s Budget: Iran’s President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that only 25 percent of the country’s next year budget will be funded by oil revenues.
Addressing a group of people in Ray, south of Tehran, President Rouhani said dependence on petrodollars has been reduced in the next year’s budget bill, while a larger share has been allocated to the construction projects.
He also predicted that Iran’s economic growth will accelerate to 5 percent next Iranian year, which begins on March 20, 2016.
While Iran’s economy has faced problems due to falling prices of crude, efforts have been made to decrease dependence on oil incomes.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for formulation of plans to cut dependence on oil revenues and govern the country on the basis of domestic capabilities instead of natural resources.
“Instead of relying on the oil revenues, Iran should be governed by rely on the domestic forces and the sources above the ground, namely the intelligence and talent of young people and the generation of science and knowledge,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in October 2014.
The Leader warned that devising the country’s economic plans based on petrodollars will leave the economy prone to decisions made by the “world’s major policy-makers”.