(MENAFN) Iran's central bank governor, Mahmoud Bahmani, stated that the bank has no plans to lift interest rates at the current time, reported The Peninsula.
Bahmani said that the bank will focus on inflation and see to what degree the government can reduce it, adding that bank interest rates must be determined in relation to the inflation level.
The central bank said that the Islamic Republic's inflation rate stood at 21.5 percent for the calendar year ending March 19.
He stressed that stabilizing the country's depreciating currency is not a priority at the moment, although it has boosted consumer prices.
It is worth noting that in January, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised bank interest to 21 percent, in an effort to prompt a strengthening in the rial, as Western sanctions targeting the country's oil exports and the central bank resulted in increasing the currency's open market value.
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