BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19. Iran’s imports of essential goods, including, wheat, corn, barley, oilseeds, compressed soybeans, medicines, medical equipment and supplies, and etc. under the NIMA exchange rate (the exchange rate created for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks) increased by 23 percent both in value and volume, from the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2021) to March 15, 2022, Deputy Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Foroud Asgari said, Trend reports citing the administration.
Asgari stressed that Iran imported 3.88 million tons of goods worth $4.29 billion under the NIMA exchange rate for the reporting period.
“Within the mentioned period, Iran imported 1.49 million tons of rice worth more than $1.28 billion, 1.15 million tons of raw sugar worth $518 million, 42,200 tons of equipment for the production of essential goods worth $396 million, 94,100 tons of truck tires worth $342 million, 166,000 tons of chemical fertilizers worth $124 million, 10,500 tons of pesticides or insecticides worth $105 million, 526 tons of veterinary drugs worth $56.1 million," he said.
The deputy director noted that Iran also imported 871,000 tons of various kernels or legumes, chicken, meat, eggs, tea and other goods worth $1.52 billion were imported to the country under the NIMA exchange rate during the reporting period.
In total (both via the official exchange rate and the NIMA system exchange rate), Iran imported 29.8 million tons of essential goods worth about $19 billion within the mentioned, which is an increase of 59 percent in value and30 percent in volume, compared to the same period last Iranian.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has created a NIMA system in 2018 for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks to eliminate the shortage of foreign currency in the country for various reasons (sanctions, economic situation, etc.). In this system, exporters who earned more than 1 million euros from export a year must sell a portion of their export earnings to banks at the NIMA rate. Later, banks used to sell foreign currency to importers for the import of several products at this rate.
The Central Bank of Iran has not imposed rules on exporters that earned from export less than 1 million euros a year. Those with total exports of one to three million euros per year are required to offer 50 percent of their received foreign exchange from the government through the NIMA system.
The exporters with annual exports of three to 10 million euros are obliged to offer 70 percent. Those with exports of above 10 million euros per year must offer 90 percent of the received foreign exchange at NIMA.
NIMA is a system intended for the sale of a certain percentage of the foreign currency gained from export. The price of 1 euro in this system is 263,222 rials, and the price of $1 is 238,326 rials.
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