The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in a report said the hard currency reserves during the three years and nine months after the incumbent government took office reached $56.7 billion -- a growth of $36 billion compared to the almost $20.6 billion increase in the previous pro-reform government.
The report said that in fiscal 2005-06 the foreign exchange reserves increased by $14.57 billion and in 2006-07 and 2007-08 the amount was $11.38 billion and $15 billion, respectively, Fars News Agency reported on Saturday.
In the first nine months of 2008-09 the increase reached $15.74 billion. This is while the increase in hard currency reserves in 2001-02 was $4.76 billion and in 2002-03 $4.667 billion. In 2003-04 and 2004-05 the deposits increased by $3.71 billion and $7.51 billion respectively.
Data released by the top bank show the country’s foreign commitments, including known and anticipated debts, which were close to $20 billion at the start of the second term of former president Mohammad Khatami in 2001-02 increased to over $40 billion in 2004-05. After taking office in the summer of 2005 the Ahmadinejad government has been repaying the foreign debts accumulated during the Khatami years.
Iran’s known foreign debt in 2001-02 reached $7.21 billion and $9.25 billion at the end of 2002-03. It was put at $12.1 billion at the end of 2003-04. Based on the report, the country’s known foreign debt in 2004-05 reached the astronomical amount of $23 billion.
The huge increase in known and anticipated foreign debts took place largely during Khatami’s second term while the country’s known foreign debt in the past four years has almost remained stable and was less than the corresponding figure at the end of 2004-05.
CBI’s report shows that known foreign debt at the end of 2005-06 reached $24.26 billion and was reduced to $23.5 billion in 2006-07. The figure was $28 billion in 2007-08 and in the ninth months of 2008-09 it was reduced to $22.73 billion. Total foreign financial commitments during the same nine months were a solid $47 billion -- mostly a legacy of the former reformist government.

Israeli warplanes bombed tunnels beneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Saturday after militants fired several mortars at the occupied lands from the coastal territory, the Israeli military and witnesses said.
There were no reports of casualties from the air attacks. An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes targeted three tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the tiny strip near the town of Rafah, along the Egyptian border, AFP reported.
Israel had resumed attacks on Friday on tunnels it says are used for smuggling into Gaza, after a nearly two-month hiatus in fighting. There were no casualties in Friday’s air strikes, launched after a rocket struck Israel.
Israel said three mortars were fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, causing no casualties. The Palestinian Resistance Committees, a militant group in Gaza, claimed it had fired the mortars on Saturday.
Militant rocket fire had dropped significantly since Egypt began efforts to consolidate the Jan. 18 truce that ended Israel’s 22-day offensive against Gaza’s Islamic militants.
Israel launched its war on the territory controlled by the Islamist Hamas government in late December. A Palestinian human rights organization says 1,417 people were killed, of whom 926 were civilians.