By Michael BieseckerPublished: March 11, 2019 07:00AMIndia’s central bank has released $2 billion worth of currency it had frozen in an attempt to revive inflation, which was still running at around 7.5% on March 10, according to a central bank statement.
This is the largest single currency release by the central bank since March 20, 2019.
It is the latest step by the bank in recent months to try to help stave off a global financial crisis, but the announcement was met with anger from the government.
The central bank said it would freeze some of the currency in case there was a spike in inflation, as it did with $2 trillion in cash reserves.
It said it was also releasing $1 billion of reserves in case it had to buy foreign currencies from the International Monetary Fund.
The $2 million in the bank’s treasury accounts, held in a separate account, would also be released to people who need to purchase money or food.
The government is expected to announce further steps by Friday.
Iran is in the midst of a financial crisis as the government struggles to pay its bills, with inflation at a record 30% in the past year.
The government has said it will be able to continue paying bills and will pay for its foreign imports through foreign exchange reserves.
However, it has not yet set a timetable for the release of its foreign currency reserves, which could take weeks to achieve.