Exporters Repatriate €7 Billion in 5 Months

EghtesadOnline: Exporters repatriated €7.19 billion of their overseas earnings from the beginning of the year (March 20) through late August.

News ID: ۷۸۴۸۳۰

31 August 2019

The amount was returned to the secondary foreign exchange market system known as Nima (Integrated Forex Deals system) to help fund currency needs for imports.

Currency repatriation into the economic cycle has gained momentum after the Central Bank of Iran intensified its supervision of the practice by offering rewards to convince exporters to bring their earnings back to the country.  In a similar vein, those not complying by the rules have been warned that they could face penalties.

In recent months, the CBI has strived to push up forex rates at Nima and at the same is trying to keep currency rates in the open market in check to be able address non-oil exporters’ aversion to returning their money. Firms exporting non-oil goods have often complained that the rates offered in Nima are too low and erode their margins, Financial Tribune reported.

Nima is a CBI-affiliated platform where exporters sell their currency earnings and importers purchase it for importing goods, machinery, equipment and raw materials. The system logs data on repatriated and currency trade for import and export.

The CBI has allowed non-oil exporters to fulfill their forex commitments by selling currency via Nima, cash transfers through hawalah and selling to the bureaux exchanges.

It also allows exporters to use a portion of their earnings for importing their own needs, namely raw materials and machineries or that of other companies.