Iran's Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari has said that Iran's oil revenues reached 64 billion U.S dollars for the first nine months of the Iranian year, Iran's satellite Press TV reported on Saturday.

"The Islamic Republic's oil revenues for the first nine months of the Iranian year (from March to December 2008) stood at 64 billion U.S. dollars," said Nozari.

The Iranian economy is dominated by oil and gas exports which constituted 70 percent of government revenue as of 2008.

High oil prices in recent years have enabled "Iran to amass nearly 80 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange reserves." Yet the increased revenue has not eased economic hardships, which include double-digit unemployment and "inflation which climbed to 26 percent as of December 2008," said the report.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday submitted to Majlis (parliament) a budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year, to start on March 21, noting that, "The budget is based on global oil prices of 37.5 dollars per barrel," much lower than the peak of nearly 147 dollars seen in the middle of 2008.

"The government has made great efforts to reduce the country's dependence on oil resources," Ahmadinejad said, adding the falling oil prices have "created an opportunity for a structural change in the budget and decreasing dependence on oil resources."

Iran had the highest annual inflation rate among Middle East countries, according to the report of the Central Bank of Iran ( CBI) released in November.

CBI chief Mahmoud Bahmani said on Saturday that the country would reduce the inflation rate in the following months.

Source: Xinhua