Photo released by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) shows CBI Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin (center) during a virtual meeting of Asian Clearing Union in Tehran on September 9, 2025.
The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) says the country had a balance of trade surplus of $26.8 billion in the calendar year to March 20.
Mohammad Reza Farzin disclosed the figure on Tuesday during an online board of directors meeting of the Asian Clearing Union hosted by Tehran.
Farzin said Iran’s trade surplus had increased by $5.8 billion in the year to late March compared to the year before.
He didn’t elaborate on how Much of the surplus was related to the increase last calendar year in the Iranian oil exports.
The top banker said, however, that Iran’s balance of payments surplus had also increased by $4.7 billion to $13.8 billion in the past calendar year.
“Having surpluses in balance of trade and balance of payments, we were able to earmark foreign currency resources to the purchase of gold in the global markets so that the CBI was one of the five leading central banks of the world in terms of buying gold last year,” said the CBI governor.
Farzin said that CBI’s gold reserves had increased by 37% last calendar year as a result of the lender’s continued purchase of the metal in the international markets.
The official pointed to an economic growth rate of around 3% recorded for Iran in the past calendar year, saying the Iranian economy had expanded for 20 back-to-back quarters in the past years despite the continued pressure of the US sanctions.
He also said that the Iranian economy had remained resilient during and after the Israeli war of aggression against the country in June, saying it was proof that the CBI had implemented the right policies to deal with such contingencies.
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