Mahmoud Bahmani

Company: Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Position: Governor

Biography: Mahmoud Bahmani was appointed governor of the Central Bank of Iran by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September last year.

His appointment took place shortly after a controversial move by the central bank to drive down inflation by raising the interest rate on deposits and thereby encouraging people to save rather than spend.

On 28 February 2009, Bahmani criticised other central banks for injecting large volumes of cash into their currency supplies to fight the global recession, as he claimed it would drive up inflation.

He has also been active in lobbying the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and in April last year, Bahmani was the representative for the group of developing countries known as the G24 at an IMF summit.

Bahmani is continuing the drive, which began in 2007, to replace the remaining 15 per cent of Iran’s oil income that is paid in dollars with euros.

Contact: (+98) 212 9951
Company website: www.cbi.ir/