TEHRAN, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The deputy head of Iran's Majlis Plan and Budget Committee urges economic "structural" changes, including the energy sector, to reach economic targets.
Aftab-e Yazd reported Monday that Majlis Plan and Budget Committee deputy head Ja'fari-Qaderi commented: "If the government wants to move the unemployment and inflation rates toward single-figure rates, it must make infrastructures, the business environment and internal and international capabilities properly functional. But with the current state of the government, I do not envisage the rates foreseen in the Fifth Plan Law bill being realized."
On the topic of the government's prediction of future oil prices to underwrite the country's budget expenditures, Ja'fari-Qaderi added, "Predicting $65 oil (a barrel) over the next five years is not rational, and this needs to be reduced. If this is not done and forecasts are not attained as a result, costs will increase in annual budgets and money must be taken from the development budget to pay for current expenditures, which is a method in force now."
