Quoting a recent report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on regional economies, Salameh said that the adoption of the lira as the monetary unit prevents the country from engaging largely in international investments, and this decreases the exposure of the economy to various kinds of shockwaves and risks.

Salameh was speaking during the launch of the annual IMF-report titled “Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia.”

Salameh said that the Central Bank will target to maintain a fixed exchange rate to the dollar, balance the interest rates, keeping control of the excess liquidity, and keep inflation low. “We target inflation below four percent for this year,” Salameh said.

The Governor said that the growth seen in the economy in the past three-years had positive impacts on employment levels. “Despite the absence of official statistics and figures for unemployment, we believe that the GDP growth has definitely helped create new jobs,” Salameh said.