Iran Ditches US Dollar for Euro in Financial Reports

EghtesadOnline: President Hassan Rouhani's administration on Wednesday officially discarded the US dollar as its currency of choice for financial reporting and opted for the euro.

News ID: ۷۸۲۳۸۸

21 April 2018

As per the directive approved in the latest Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, all ministries and state-owned organizations and companies are obligated to henceforth present their official financial statistics and information using the euro, the official news portal of the Cabinet announced.

"What's more, the Central Bank of Iran has been obligated from the date of the notification of this directive to regularly announce and manage the exchange rate of rial against the euro," the directive said.

Iran has been pursuing replacement of the greenback for some time as CBI Governor Valiollah Seif initially announced in Jan. 2017 that the measure is to be implemented from the beginning of the previous fiscal year in March 2017, according to Financial Tribune.

However, since USD is the basis of pricing oil revenues and Iran is a major exporter of oil and its derivatives, the measure was postponed.

But it was never in doubt that Iran aims to replace the greenback in financial reporting, because sidelining the American currency has been one of its main policies.

The country is pursuing that policy on several fronts, namely through clinching currency swap deals with allies. It has one such deal in place with Turkey, and the first letter of credit based on that deal was opened on April 16, CBI announced recently.

Seif had recently heralded the imminent implementation of the change in Iran's currency of choice for financial reporting.

On April 10, the day the government abruptly unified the dual foreign exchange rates to prevent the further depreciation of Iran's currency rial, the CBI chief was in parliament to present a performance report and provide further explanations.

Seif told MPs that he has received the green light to swap the greenback with the euro in Iran's financial reports from Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.