Unemployment, govt’s prior objective to tackle: Rouhani

“Banking system, pension funds, imbalanced budget, water crisis, and environmental issues are the other problems which should be solved in the next four year term,” said President Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran after callig unemployment and economic issues as the main problems ahead of the new administration.

He made the remarks during the meeting held on Saturday, between Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the ministers of the cabinet.

“The top objective of the administration is resolving the unemployment problem and we try to create 900,000 jobs annually,” reassured the Iranian president.

“Materializing the 8% [economic] growth and fighting poverty and social inequality are the other objectives of the new administration,” asserted Mr. Rouhani saying that fulfilling the dream of 8% economic growth demands 237 billion dollars of new investment in a year, “to meet this objective, state budget and facilities are not enough and banks, capital market, National Development Fund, and the capital of the private sector should be brought in as foreign investment is simultaneously is absorbed.”

Mr. Rouhani affirmed that the annual rate of inflation has hit a number of 8% and highlighted that the twelfth administration is after keeping the rate at a single-digit number, “last year was an exceptional year for our economy as we witnessed a two-digit economic growth rate and Iran was the number one in the world for a such a rate.”

The Iranian president underlined the necessity of popularizing economy, and amending the banking system and added, “To reach these goals, bank interest rates should be lowered and ministries and banks should stop corporative activities.”

“We have promised our people to eradicate absolute poverty by the end of the tenure of the 12th administration and to meet this promise, the tax system of country should be revolutionized so that the distance between the two top tenth of society with the poor is shortened and absolute poverty is eradicated,” underlined the Iranian top executive.

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