Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi approved on Tuesday the public budget for the Persian year which started on March 20, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
Raisi presented an upbeat state budget previously that aimed for 8 percent economic growth and increased crude oil sales of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) priced at $60 per barrel, despite continued US sanctions.
On January 9, Iranian lawmakers approved the generalities of the proposed budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year.
However, they did not put the bill to vote for final approval.
The MPs only discussed the budget’s items in specialized committees behind closed doors.
According to Iranian media, the country’s balanced budget is 15,052 trillion rials, which equates to 50.2 billion dollars at the free-market exchange rate of 300,000 rials to every dollar. It assumes a 10 percent average increase compared to last year’s budget.
Iran's top budget official has said the fiscal plan for this Iranian year was drawn up on the assumption that the US sanctions would persist, Reuters reported.
It quoted analysts as saying that a failure of efforts to restore a 2015 accord, which would curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, risks raising political tensions in the Middle East and further increasing world oil prices.
