Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.26/ Trend F.Milad/
More than $10 million has so far been transacted on Iran's foreign exchange centre,
the Central Bank of Iran announced on Wednesday. Iran's foreign exchange transaction centre was officially inaugurated on Monday.
The new foreign exchange centre allows importers of goods including truck tyres, construction equipment and synthetic fibres to buy dollars at a rate two per cent cheaper than the street rate at any given time.
The dollar sold for 24,040 rials at the centre on Monday, compared to about 24,600 on the open market at around the same time.
The government maintains an official reference rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar, but only a limited amount of foreign exchange is available at this rate.
The government plans to use revenues from petrochemical sales and 14.5 per cent of its oil revenues to provide dollars for the centre, Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani said. He did not give an absolute figure for the amount of dollars to be supplied.
"With the distribution of currency at this centre, the exchange rate in the market will go down because some of the demand for dollars will be met by this centre and the pressure of demand will be removed," Bahmani was quoted as saying.