BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18
Trend:
Iranian central bank has so far provided $32 billion for the country's imports, despite the Coronavirus outbreak.
"The supply of foreign currency through the Nima system by exporters is going well,” the governor of Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnasser Hemmati said, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
“During February, an average of more than $80 million has been traded via Nima system, on the daily basis,” he said.
The governor of the central bank said that since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started on March 20, 2020), $9.2 billion of currency at the official rate (42,000 rials per dollar) has been provided for the import of basic goods, medicine, and medical equipment
In late May 2019, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) unveiled a directive package that provided the country’s exporters with guidelines about how they should re-inject their foreign currency incomes into the country’s economy
Based on the new directive, for the petrochemical sector, the exporters should present at least 60 percent of their foreign currency incomes into NIMA, and a maximum of 10 percent could be injected into the financial system in the form of hard currency and the rest could be used for importing necessary goods.
As for other exporters, at least 50 percent of the total earnings should be presented at the NIMA system and a maximum of 20 percent could be distributed in form of hard currency and the rest can be used for imports.
The instructions aimed to lead the export revenues from the non-oil exports back into the country’s economy through NIMA, mandate all the exporters of goods and services to guarantee to bring back to the country the foreign currency amount allocated to them by the government at lower prices than the free market.