Tehran, Iran, July 12
By A. Shirazi - Trend:
The US dollar dropped from 81,000 rials to as much as 78,000 rials in the open market in the Iranian capital city of Tehran on Wednesday night, after government-announced secondary market for foreign exchange started working.
The parallel market is designed for importers of non-essential goods that can’t have access to the central bank’s unified rate of 42,000 rials, which is available to essential goods like energy-related businesses.
The initiative is also aimed at helping exporters to sell their dollars through NIMA system, the local name for the Integrated Forex Deals System launched by the government after it unified the USD forex rate in April.
Reports coming out of the Iranian capital suggest that the secondary market has helped avert dramatic rate fluctuations as the county’s unstable FOREX market is witnessing signs of stability and relative clam.
The US dollar on Wednesday was being traded at 78,300 rials in Tehran, showing a 4-percent decline compared to last Wednesday’s figure of 81,000 rials.
Iran’s currency started slumping against the US dollar months ago in anticipation of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear accord in May, and re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran, beginning in August. To try to contain the rial’s decline and curb a thriving black market for dollars, Iranian authorities unified exchange rates to 42,000 rials to the US dollar and imposed restrictions on foreign currency trade.
It is not clear whether the black market will continue to influence prices or not as still the demand for the US dollar is high.
Because the new market doesn’t answer the foreign currency needs of other segments of society, like travelers, the black market will continue to affect prices, said Mohammad Lahouti, the head of the Iran Export Confederation, in comments to Donya-e-Eghtesad.
In the capital, licensed exchange offices and unlicensed street traders are still not allowed to buy and sell US dollars and people can only get them from banks.
The country is still dependent on the US dollar despite a recent move by the government to ditch the US dollar and replace it with euro as part of its plan to stabilize the currency market and reduce the country’s reliance on the American currency.