BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 15. Iran's export of petrochemical products increased by 30 percent in value and 13 percent in volume, during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through October 22, 2022), compared to the same period last Iranian year, Secretary General of Iran’s Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporation (APIC), Ahmad Mahdavi said at a press conference in Tehran on November 15, Trend reports citing Mehr New Agency.
According to Mahdavi, Iran exported a total of 17.5 million tons of petrochemical products worth $10.8 billion in 7 months.
“Meanwhile, in the same period last Iranian year, Iran’s petrochemical exports amounted to 15.5 million tons worth $8.3 billion,” he added.
The secretary general also said that overall, Iran produced 41.5 million tons of petrochemical products within seven months, which is an increase of 7 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year. So, Iran’s petrochemical production stood at about 38.6 million tons in the same period last Iranian year.
“Over 7 months, the exporters of petrochemical products sold $8.73 billion worth of foreign currency to the country's banks under the NIMA exchange rate, which is an increase of 23 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year. This figure was $7.09 billion worth in the same period last Iranian year,” Mahdavi noted.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) created 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 exporting 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.
The price of 1 euro at NIMA is currently 287,492 rials, and the price of $1 is 278,302 rials.
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