Azerbaijan, Baku, July 12/ Trend, N. Umid /
Iran has stored staple goods which were imported with cheap USD (with previous official rate of 12,260 rials per each dollar) for 2 to 3 months, Minister of Industries and Business, Mehdi Ghazanfari said, Resalat Daily reported.
He said that, rising of the official rate of USD (which doubled last week) will not affect price of this goods. However, Iranian economists have serious concerns about food shortage for the near future.
He didn't mention the concrete amount of staple good reserves.
Previously, Issa Kalantari, head of the House of Farmers, who served as the Minister of Agriculture from 1997 to 2005 had stated that Iran's President-elect Hassan Rohani will take the presidency in a few weeks with an empty treasury, empty ports and depots and an empty Central Bank.
He has predicted that in autumn the price of staple goods will increase.
On the other hand, according to the Iranian media outlets, some 80 ships carrying wheat and staple goods are waiting for customs clearance due to foreign currency problems.
According to some officials, the import of some goods has faced problems after the administration announced that it will no longer use a USD exchange rate of 12,260 rials (the USD official rate figure that changed early July) for the import of staple foods.
Earlier, Iran's Central Bank withdrew the official USD rate of 12, 260 rials from its website.
The administration officially announced that the official rate of the dollar will no longer be used for importation of staple food and medicine starting July 9.