Azerbaijan, Baku, July 15/Trend M. Moezzi
Iran's Central Bank has issued new regulations for providing importers with foreign currency at the official exchange rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar to ensure the supply of high priority categories of goods.
Until now, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade did not have guarantees that raw materials used by factories, machinery and spare parts, and medical and pharmaceutical equipment, would have access to official rate foreign currency, Kiumars Fathollah Kermanshahi, deputy director at the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) told Mehr news agency.
As worked out by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Trade Ministry, 10 groups of goods have been created with 5 of them getting dollars at the 12,260-rial rate and the rest receiving foreign exchange from exports.
Mr. Kermanshshi emphasized there's no problem with Iran's foreign currency reserves and the objective is to provide essential goods with the official-rate currency they need.
The new regulations were issued last Thursday and it is mandatory that banks follow them.
While Iran's official exchange rate sets the dollar's value at 12,260 rials, the currency's price is much higher on the free market. For example, yesterday (July 14), the dollar was priced at 19,240 rials in Tehran's currency market.
The U.S. dollar began its climb against Iran's currency, the rial, last winter, a result of worries over Iran's economy as new, tougher sanctions were imposed against the country. Over several weeks the rial lost 40 to 50 percent of its value against the dollar. In response to the sharp climb in the dollar's value, the Central Bank set a single fixed official exchange rate to stabilize Iran's foreign currency market but move hasn't been successful.