Tehran Market: Euro and USD Keep Climbing

EghtesadOnline: Foreign exchange rates were again defiant and continued to climb on Tuesday with the US dollar surpassing the all-time high of 160,000 rials.

News ID: ۷۴۶۰۵۴

26 September 2018

According to the Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union website, the dollar was traded for 163,130 rials on the open market. The euro gained close to 2% with the single currency changing hands at 191,090.

The volatile foreign exchange market took another body blow soon after Donald Trump abandoned the landmark nuclear deal in May, with the rial going from 62,000 to the dollar to as low as Tuesday's 163,130.

Figures from the Central Bank of Iran, show that currency trade from August 7 to September 24 through Nima – the Integrated Forex Deals System launched by the government after it unified the USD forex rate – amounted to €2.2 billion, according to Financial Tribune.

Currency trade on the secondary forex market on September 24 reached around €56 million.

In addition, foreign currency allocated for imports during the 48-day period totaled €1.79 billion. This is while the amount on September 24 reached close to €39 million.

The euro exchange rate in the secondary market on Monday was 96,130 rials while in the central bank’s Sana rate system it sold for 104,590 rials. Sana rates are the average of exchange rates at which foreign currencies are traded at bureaux de change on any given day.

According to the Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, non-oil exports stood at $22.7 billion from the beginning of the calendar year in March to mid-September but only $4 billion was presented through the Nima system.

Petrochemical companies had an 80% share of the amount and the government has so far allocated $13 billion at the official rate (42,000 rials) for importing basic  goods, the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA) reported.

Hemmati says foreign currency reserves are good and getting better, a claim most independent economists and analysts find extremely difficult to digest. He said during the past two months access to foreign currency has improved through banks and exchange bureaux to help meet public needs.