On Nov. 10, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the Supreme Administrative Council has approved the revival of the Planning and Budget Organization. This move reverses one of the most controversial policies of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and is in line with attempts to restore stability to Iran’s domestic economic decision-making.

The Planning and Budget Organization is one of Iran's oldest bodies, created to supervise a seven-year civil construction program. It started in 1948 under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In spite of the fundamental political and economic changes that followed the 1979 revolution, the organization continued to operate until July 7, 2000, when Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, hoping to strengthen it, merged the organization with the Administrative and State Recruitment Organization and created the Management and Planning Organization (MPO).

In October 2007, Ahmadinejad ordered the governors of Iran's provinces — all of whom were appointed by the Interior Ministry — to take over the duties of their provinces' MPOs. An economist in Tehran's Chamber of Commerce told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “This was Ahmadinejad’s first economic coup d’etat.” He called the MPO “an independent organization,” but believes that Ahmadinejad saw it as a threat to his own economic plans.

The economist said that Ahmadinejad “wanted to spend the billion-dollar budgets the way he saw fit.” At the time, Ahmadinejad claimed that he had dissolved the MPO because it had been founded by the Americans.