“It’ll be around that time," said Gholamali Kamyab, the vice governor for foreign exchange affairs of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).
Kamyab made the comment in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of a conference in Geneva to study post-sanctions business opportunities in Iran.
Iran and the P5+1 announced at the end of marathon top-level talks on July 14 that they had agreed on certain restrictions over the Iranian nuclear energy activities in return for the removal of certain economic sanctions against the country.
The removal of sanctions - which is expected to start before the end of 2015 - will lead to the unfreezing of Iranian assets that had been blocked in overseas accounts over the past years.
The funds are currently being held in different countries and the sum could eventually exceed $29 billion, Kamyab said.
“There could be other figures, but that’s most of it,” he added.
The holdings include $23 billion in foreign exchange belonging to the CBI and another $6 billion of government money, according to a recent report on state television, Bloomberg added.
Iran has no gold held overseas, Kamyab said.
Iran says the funds will be invested in areas including the petrochemical and natural gas industries, mining, roads and construction.
The CBI had already rejected speculations that the value of the country’s assets frozen in overseas banks due to sanctions amounted to above $100 billion.
