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Iran to reinstate budgetary planning body

Iran’s Supreme Administrative Council has approved the revival of the Planning and Budget Organization, a major promise of President Hassan Rouhani’s campaign and an asset Rouhani will need no matter how the nuclear negotiations turn out.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Parliamentarians look at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed budget in Tehran February 1, 2012. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2X5D4

On Nov. 10, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the Supreme Administrative Council has approved the revival of the Planning and Budget Organization. This move reverses one of the most controversial policies of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and is in line with attempts to restore stability to Iran’s domestic economic decision-making.

The Planning and Budget Organization is one of Iran's oldest bodies, created to supervise a seven-year civil construction program. It started in 1948 under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In spite of the fundamental political and economic changes that followed the 1979 revolution, the organization continued to operate until July 7, 2000, when Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, hoping to strengthen it, merged the organization with the Administrative and State Recruitment Organization and created the Management and Planning Organization (MPO).

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