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IRAN - NOURBAKHSH DIES
Neighbouring Iran’s central bank has experienced trouble of a different
kind. Sadly, the governor died prematurely of a heart attack last weekend
at the age of 54. Mohsen Nourbakhsh was hurried to hospital in northern
Iran where he was presumed to have been on holiday for the Iranian new
year. For the time being, the deputy governor of the central bank,
Mohammad Javad Vahhaji, has taken over as the interim governor, until a new
governor is appointed.

Nourbakhsh, an accomplished American-educated economist, began his second
innings as governor in 1994, having been governor in the mid-eighties
before transferring to the government where he was finance minister for six
years. But on returning to the central bank his relations with the finance
ministry soured as he was constantly at loggerheads with the finance
minister, Tahmaseb Mazaheri, who stood in the way of Nourbakhsh’s attempts
to raise interest rates. Disagreements reached a stage where recently it
was rumoured that certain members of parliament were plotting his
removal. He is said to have “strictly controlled Iran's banking and
monetary system” according to one Iranian economist, and the loss of
Nourbakhsh is said to have significant implications for Iranian economic
policy - under Nourbakhsh the central bank was said to be almost like a
rival ministry, with a great deal of influence over major economic policies.

Nourbakhsh played a pivotal part in the rehabilitation of the obliterated
Iranian economy in the aftermath of the devastating war with Iraq during
the 1980s. President Mohammad Khatami, with whom Nourbakhsh was said to be
close, described him as a “very sincere, intelligent and capable
serviceman”, while the council of ministers said he had played a “key role
in putting shape into the monetary policies of the country by unifying the
Iranian currency and establishing a reserve fund [for the surplus oil
revenues] as well as [helping with the] eye-catching rise of the central
bank's reserves.” The IMF put a good word in for Nourbakhsh too. Its top
gun, Horst Kohler, said, “Nourbakhsh will be remembered as a person who
played a key role in Iran’s economic development and promotion of
transparency in decision-making of that country.”