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Will Iran get its billions back?

Iranian officials have issued contradictory statements about the size of Iran's blocked foreign reserves.
An Iranian customer speaks with a bank clerk at the Export Development Bank of Iran in the capital Tehran on July 27, 2015. Iran's central bank chief said that Iran has assets of $29 billion in overseas banks that could be unlocked under a nuclear deal struck on July 14, far less than reported estimates of over $100 billion. AFP PHOTO / BEHROUZ MEHRI        (Photo credit should read BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

In the run-up to the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers, there was talk of more than $100 billion of Iranian assets being unfrozen as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Nonetheless, on July 15, Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), announced that the total amount of “usable funds” that will be released will be “$23 billion belonging to the CBI and about $6 to $7 billion belonging to the government.” Two days later, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam, a leading member of the Majles Plan and Budget Commission, put the total figure at $130 billion. It is evident that such divergences will cause confusion. The discrepancy created such controversy that Seif wrote a public letter to President Hassan Rouhani to explain the details, underlining that “though the total amount of foreign reserves is $107 billion, only $26 billion will be usable.”

The fact is that both these figures could theoretically be correct. Indeed, the nuance in Seif’s letter is the term “usable.” In the words of Finance and Economy Minister Alireza Teyebnia, “It is a question of how one defines Iran’s external assets.” He states that Iran’s hard currency reserves abroad amount to $100 billion, but what can be used is the figure that the CBI governor has outlined.

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