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USD sold at 32,700 rials at Iran's free market

Business Materials 31 December 2012 15:08 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.31/ Trend F.Milad

U.S. dollar price is slightly easing at Iran's free market, so that it was sold at 32,700 rials on Monday.

US dollar price neared 35,000 a week ago.

Each Azadi gold coin was also sold at 12.6 million rials at the free market.

U.S. dollar was presented at the price of 24,576 rials at Iran's forex center on Monday, the IRNA News Agency reported.

The government has set the 28,500 rials price for the free market but the ‎brokers still refuse to trade dollar at the mentioned price.

Dollar price has reached 40,000 rials in October but by inauguration of the foreign exchange center the prices fell to 27,000 rials.

Critics believe that Iranian government is not controlling the price of dollar at the free market on purpose. They claim that the government wants to take advantage of selling dollar at the free market in order to compensate its lack of budget.

The new foreign exchange center was officially inaugurated on September 24. Some 10,175 applications have been registered at the center so far.

The new center allows importers of goods including truck tires, construction equipment and synthetic fibers to buy dollars at a rate 2 percent cheaper than the street rate at any given time.

The government maintains an official reference rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar, but only a limited amount of foreign exchange is available at this rate.

Iranian government plans to use revenues from petrochemical sales and 14.5 percent of its oil revenues to provide dollars for the center, central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani said in September. He did not give an absolute figure for the amount of dollars to be supplied.

"With the distribution of currency in this center, the exchange rate in the market will go down, because some of the demand (for dollars) will be met in this center and the pressure of demand will be removed," Bahmani was quoted as saying.

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