TEHRAN, Iran, Feb.13
Trend:
Iran's gold and jewelry export have been sliding due to sanctions, while the country continues export of gold machinery, said the head of Iran Gold and Jewelry Association.
Mohammad Keshtiaray has discussed the latest statistics on gold export in an interview with Trend.
The statistics of Iran's gold artifacts export during current Iranian year (began March 21,2019) and last Iranian year (started March 21,2018) have not been released yet, but it seems the export has been descending, Keshtiaray said.
"Transferring foreign currency is very important in gold export and in current situation when Iran is facing limitation due to the sanctions our export in the current year has been around $90 to $150 million," the head of association added. "We have no place in gold export since many production units are closed or semi-active due to sanctions; due to the production cuts and increase of price we can not compete with global market."
"Iran is also the exporter of gold equipment; however, the export volume is unknown, but we know that Iran is among the top gold equipment makers in the world," Keshtiaray said adding that most customers of Iran machinery are from Iraq, Turkey and partly from Italy.
"Iran's gold artifacts are mostly exported to the Persian Gulf states and Asian countries," he said.
"The gold prices depend on the foreign currency rate and the price of ounce of gold in global market, and the former has been the most important factor in the recent increase of gold price," Keshtiaray added.
"Political tensions in the Middle East caused increase of gold price to its highest rate in past six years, while in Iran the daily increase of foreign currency rate affected gold and gold coin market," he said.
"Iran is among the top seven countries in the world in terms of gold and jewelry production," the head of association noted.