Iran seeks alternative ways to increase non-oil revenues

President Hassan Rouhani has highlighted the country’s need for alternative ways of boosting its non-oil revenues.

Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran should invest more in new technologies and related areas to that end.

He also said his administration was set to develop Iran’s foreign policy in the next Persian calendar year (starting March 21) so that the country will witness better conditions.

His comments came at a gathering of business entrepreneurs in the central province of Isfahan, where he called for more investment in the local tourism industry.

The Iranian president further noted that his cabinet has managed to curb the country’s inflation rate and lower it from a 40 percent peak almost two years ago to around 16 percent.

Official figures confirm that the country’s economy has attained positive growth for the first time in two years.

Recent figures by the Central Bank of Iran show the economy expanded 4.6 percent in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2014).