BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 28
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iranian banks sold $16.7 billion million worth of various currencies at the NIMA exchange rate (the exchange rate created for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks), during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through October 22, 2021), the Director General for Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Ali Salehabadi told IRIB, Trend reports.
The director general said that however, this amount of currency was sold at the NIMA rate in the last Iranian year (March 20, 2020 through March 20, 2021).
Salehabadi also added that Iranian banks sold 10 billion worth of currencies for the purchase of essential products at the official exchange rate (where $1 equals 42,000 rials). Meanwhile, in the first seven months of the current Iranian year, the figure stood at $9.5 billion.
“An organized currency market began to operate in Iran two years ago (October 23, 2019). During the same year (March 21, 2019, through March 19, 2020), $50 million was traded in this market. This figure rose to $700 million within the last Iranian year. Meanwhile, in 7months, $1.1 billion worth of currency was traded in the market,” he noted.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has created a NIMA system in 2018 for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks to eliminate the shortage of foreign currency in the country for various reasons (sanctions, economic situation, etc.).
In this system, exporters who earned more than 1 million euros from export a year must sell a portion of their export earnings to banks at the NIMA rate. Later, banks used to sell foreign currency to importers for the import of several products at this rate.
The Central Bank of Iran has not imposed rules on exporters that earned from export less than 1 million euros a year.
Those with total exports of one to three million euros per year are required to offer 50 percent of their received foreign exchange from the government through the NIMA system.
The exporters with annual exports of three to 10 million euros are obliged to offer 70 percent. Those with exports of above 10 million euros per year must offer 90 percent of the received foreign exchange at NIMA.
According to the official exchange rate in Iran, $1 equals 42,000 Iranian rials and 1 euro equals 49,000 rials.
The SANA system is a system introduced by the Central Bank of Iran to the currency exchange offices, where the price of 1 euro is currently 310,000 rials, and the price of $1 is 267,000 rials.
NIMA is a system intended for the sale of a certain percentage of the foreign currency gained from export. The price of 1 euro in this system is currently 270,000 rials, and the price of $1 is 233,000 rials.
In Iran, the official exchange rate is used for the import of some essential products.
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