Iran: €22 Billion Allocated for Essential Imports in 9 Months

EghtesadOnline: Close to €22 billion was allocated by the Central Bank of Iran for import of essential goods during the first nine months of the current fiscal (March 21- December 21).

News ID: ۷۴۶۴۴۷

08 January 2019

According to the CBI website, in a meeting attended by senior officials of the bank and members of Iran Chamber of Commerce, it was announced that €7 billion was sold to importers via Nima (a local acronym for the integrated forex deals system) during the period.

Gholam Reza Panahi, the CBI deputy for forex affairs, said the allocation of currency indicates CBI support for both importers and exporters.

Panahi told the meeting that the value of exported goods was worth €29 billion during the nine months period to December 2018, Financial Tribune reported.

Abdolanser Hemmati, the CBI governor, stressed the importance of repatriation of export earnings and said  more export revenue should be sold to Nima to help create a balance in the volatile currency market and underpin the struggling production sector.

He said oil export earnings are reserved for exporting essential and strategic goods and earnings from exporting other goods should be allocated for less important goods.

“Therefore, in the interest of public wellbeing, exporters should step in and bring their overseas earnings into the economic cycle,” the CBI boss was quoted as saying.

The Central Bank of Iran, in a directive  earlier last week urged exporters to return their export earnings to "the country's economic cycle'' as a three-month deadline is coming to an end.

The CBI initially obliged exporters to bring their export earnings to the country by September 11 after the measure was approved earlier by the High Economic Coordination Council (an ad hoc powerful decision-making body comprising the heads of the 3 branches of government). The regulation bound exporters to repatriate their forex earnings on Nima three months after shipment.

Under pressure from the private sector and lawmakers, the bank made some changes to its earlier directive on November 19, exempting export earnings of up to €1 million from being sold on Nima.