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Iran’s revenues from hydrocarbons dropped by a staggering US$26.2 billion compared to the previous year according to the local newspaper Bahar.
Reuters reported that the 45.5% drop covers the Iranian year that started on March 21 2009.
“Iran’s oil and gas revenue has reached $31.3 billion (in the six months from last) March — some $26.2 billion lower than the same period in the last Iranian year,” Reuters quoted the report in Bahar as saying.
The figures will come as a blow to the current regime in Iran as tightening sanctions over the country’s nuclear activities will put even more of a strain on the country’s income from its greatest resource.
Critics in Iran have accused the country’s disputed President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of squandering the huge windfall the country enjoyed when oil prices hit $147 per barrel in 2008.
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