Iran foreign exchange reserves jump on high oil prices
Source: Middle East Times
September 13, 2007
TEHRAN -- Iran's foreign currency reserves held in banks abroad have risen to $65 billion as of the end of June 2007, on the back of high crude oil prices, media reported Thursday.
The figure represents a jump of 37 percent on the same period, a year earlier, Iran's central bank said in a statement quoted by the Hamshahri newspaper.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, and the second in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has been helped by soaring crude prices that are helping the country weather domestic economic problems.
Amid US threats of further sanctions action over its nuclear program, Iran has announced it is switching its foreign reserves out of US dollars into euros and other currencies, to prevent damage to its economy from the US pressure.
However, the central bank is still accounting the total foreign currency reserves in US dollars.
