DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani presented a state budget of 4,700 trillion rials to parliament on Tuesday, saying US sanctions would affect Iranians’ lives and economic growth but not bring the government to its knees. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran in May and reimposed sanctions on Iran, including on its vital oil industry. He gave the value of the draft budget at about 4,700 trillion rials for the next Iranian year which starts on March 21, 2019. Under the unofficial exchange rate, which has been severely hurt by the sanctions, the budget is equal to about $47 billion. Rouhani said state employees would get a 20 percent pay raise next year and the budget included $14 billion in subsidies to provide cheap basic goods such as food and medicine, up from $13 billion in the current year’s state budget.

Source: Egypt Independent December 25, 2018 08:26 UTC