Mahmoud Bahmani
Encyclopedia
Mahmoud Bahmani It is situated west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz...
) is an Iranian politician and economist. He is the current Governor of the Central Bank of Iran.
Career
PresidentPresident of Iran
The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed Bahmani to this position in September 2008 after Ahmadinejad dismissed then-Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri. Mazaheri had only served in his office for about the past year. The changeover took place shortly after a decision by the Central Bank of Iran to raise the interest rate on deposits, which was intended to the accelerating inflation rate. Tension existed between government officials who favored an expansionary monetary policy despite the inflation and bankers who sought to contain it. Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam, a key figure in the Majlis' Economic Commission, opposed Bahmani's appointment and the past dismissal of Mazaheri, saying "[t]he change of the CBI was not desirable and I believe this change should have not taken place".
On 28 February 2009, Bahmani vocally criticized other financial institutions for the large injections into their currency supplies to fight the global economic recession
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
. He said, "the United States of America and some major European countries, they ratified economic stimulus packages and injected thousands of billions of dollars into their economies that would increase inflation in the world in the near future". He also asked the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
to give more support to poor and developing countries. In the International Monetary Fund Spring Meeting
Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group
The IMF and World Bank meet each autumn in what is officially known as the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group and each spring in the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group...
from April 25–26 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Bahmani served as the representative of the group of 24 developing countries, which is known as 'G-24'.
In his term, Bahmani came up with very different estimates of inflation than Ahmadinejad, with the former giving 14 percent and the latter 25.4 percent from 2007-2008. After the numbers became part of the political dispute between Ahmadinejad and his rival Mir Hossein Mousavi in the 2009 Presidential election
Iranian presidential election, 2009
Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
, Bahmani threatened to resign if his estimations were disputed.
See also
- Domestic policy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
- Economy of IranEconomy of IranThe economy of Iran is the eighteenth largest in the world by purchasing power parity and according to Iranian officials' claims is going to become the 12th largest by 2015. The economy of Iran is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector and some 50% of the economy centrally planned...