TEHRAN, Iran, Aug.11
Trend:
Iran's automakers will increase selling vehicles, but the price will decrease only when there is balance in the economy, said the Acting Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade.
"The ministry has been successful in controlling prices for cars, but It's not possible to predict foreign currency rate, we can't promise to reduce auto price," said Hossein Modarres Khiabani, Trend reports citing Fars News Agency.
"Increase of auto price in June was uncommon comparing to price of other goods. The price of steel sheet and petrochemical material that are used in auto making is set by the stock exchange that effected the prices; meanwhile, we have monitored and dealt with auto hoarding that led to the price reduction," Modarres Khiabani said.
"The conditions are different from those in May, when 5.7 million people have registered for presale of 25,000 vehicles; last week, only 200,000 individuals have applied for presale of 15,000 vehicles," the acting minister added.
"Coronavirus spread and the sanctions are two variables that limit auto price, as the sanctions have intensely limited trade, and border were closed due to Coronavirus," he said. "Big automakers are not asking for liberalization of auto price; our request is to set a real auto price, as currently, the automakers are selling their products at the price that is less than production cost."
"We hope the appropriate proportion between rial and foreign currency rate would adjust auto price to people's income. We continue to implement extra auto sale plan, and two stages of the plan have been completed. In total, we plan to sell 75,000 vehicles in four stages," he added.