Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 2/ Trend , D.Khatinoglu/
Gold and foreign exchange trading have been suspended in Iran's open market because of rapid price fluctuations, Iranian media outlets quoted head of the Gold and Jewellery Union Mohammad Kashti-Aray as saying.
Iran's national currency, the rial, has lost its 17 per cent of value yesterday. A USD was sold at 29, 700 rials in the morning, but sharply increased to 35, 500 rials by the evening.
Iran's www.mazanex.com website which covers gold and foreign exchange prices has gradually eliminated the price of the USD since the evening of Oct.1, saying it has not been able to get accurate and reliable information about the USD rate.
The Iranian President who has repeatedly called the USD a "worthless piece of paper", is now faced with a more than 80 per cent drop in the rial's value compared to the USD since early 2012.
Meanwhile, the price on a single Bahar Azadi coin is 10,320,000 rials today compared to 10,162,000 rials yesterday. Gold coins are minted and sold by the Central Bank.
It seems that western sanctions intended to curb Iran's oil revenues have affected Iran's economy which relies mostly on oil crude income. Half the Iranian government's annual revenue and 80 per cent of its exports fall to crude oil.
The U.S. and EU imposed bilateral sanctions over Iran on June 28 and July 1 respectively to force it to cease its sensitive nuclear activities. U.S. sanctions targeted Iran's Central Bank, which is responsible for the transaction of exported barrel revenues. EU sanctions also banned Iranian crude oil import to EU members and the covering of insurance services for tankers that carry Iranian oil.
Last week, Iran's Vice Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Reza Bahonar announced that Iran's oil exports have dropped to around one million barrels per day (bpd) during the first half of the solar year (started on March 19) on average, while this figure as of June and July had fallen to around 800,000 barrels per day.
Iran's oil export volume in 2011 was 2.3 million barrels per day of which 18 per cent was sold to European countries.