Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.6/ Trend F.Milad/
More than $500 million has so far been transacted at Iran's foreign exchange center, the Mehr News Agency announced on Saturday.
Some 1,000 applications have been registered at the center, which was officially inaugurated on September 24.
The new foreign exchange center allows importers of goods including truck tires, construction equipment and synthetic fibers to buy dollars at a rate 2 percent cheaper than the street rate at any given time.
The government maintains an official reference rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar, but only a limited amount of foreign exchange is available at this rate.
"The government plans to use revenues from petrochemical sales and 14.5 percent of its oil revenues to provide dollars for the center," central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani said. He did not stress an absolute figure for the amount of dollars to be delivered.
"With the distribution of currency in this center, the exchange rate in the market will go down, because some of the demand (for dollars) will be met in this center and the pressure of demand will be removed," Bahmani was quoted as saying.
