BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
As much as $4.5 billion has been provided in Iran for the import of essential products, raw materials and equipment from the beginning of current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020) to yesterday (June 9), said Director General of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati, Trend reports citing IRINN.
According to Hemmati, however, over the past two months (March 20-May 20), Iran's exports have fallen sharply, resulting in a currency shortage at the NIMA exchange rate.
Hemmati added that with the emergence of a currency shortage, the selling price increased at the NIMA rate. However, the Central Bank of Iran controls the price of foreign currency.
"At a time when foreign exchange prices are falling in Iran, the US is announcing new sanctions against Iran. However, these sanctions will have no effect," he said.
Hemmati added that Iran's oil and non-oil revenues are currently growing.
Hemmati said that the Iranian government has decided to sell the bonds to reduce oil sales and eliminate the budget deficit. Over the past two weeks, 100 trillion rials worth of bonds have been bought by banks with a yield of 15 percent.
He said that in general, however, there was a need to purchase bonds worth 220 trillion rials.
"This process continues. The government sells these bills whenever it wants to cover the budget deficit," Hemmati noted.
The NIMA exchange rate created for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks. According to this exchange rate, $1 equals 157,456 rials and 1 euro equals 178,224 rials.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies and individuals. Iran has put increasing oil products exports on its agenda due to a sharp decline in crude oil exports.
The US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on Iran on June 8, adding 125 ships and tankers to the sanctions list.