Iran allows foreigners to import gold for investment purposes

A Tuesday report stated that foreign investors plan to auction nearly 700 kilograms of gold bars in Iran’s Center for Exchange of Currency & Gold (ICE) in the near future.

The report cited a statement from the ICE, which is a subsidiary of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), showing that the two foreign investors seeking to invest in Iran’s steel industry had sold some $4 million worth of imported gold in the center in recent weeks.

The planned auction for the 700-kilogram gold consignment on the ICE is expected to generate more than $102 million in new funds for investment projects in Iran.

The report by Fars said that the Iranian government had approved the use of imported gold for foreign investment purposes during a Cabinet session held in late September.

The new measure stipulates that foreign investors would be allowed to withdraw the principal and interest of their investments from the country in the form of standard gold bars at least one year after they sold their imported gold on the ICE.

CBI Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said last month that the new government measure would benefit those foreign investors who are not willing to directly spend their hard currency resources inside Iran.

Government figures published earlier this year showed that Iran had attracted more than $8 billion worth of direct foreign investment in the seven months to February.

Recent data from Iran’s stock market authority shows that foreign investment in the market nearly doubled in the year to late July to reach the equivalent of nearly $200 million./isna