BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 4. Foreign currency supply in Iran increased by 57 percent, over the last Iranian year (March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022), compared to the preceding Iranian year (March 20, 2020 through March 20, 2021), Director General of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Ali Salehabadi said, Trend reports citing the bank’s website.
The director general noted that foreign currency amount in the county amounted to over $57 billion. Meanwhile, in the preceding Iranian year, the figure stood at $36.5 billion, Salehabadi added.
“In addition, the sale of foreign exchange earnings from exports to the country's banks under the NIMA exchange rate (the exchange rate created for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks) increased by 66 percent, compared to the preceding Iranian year. Thus, $29.3 billion worth of various currencies were sold to the Iranian banks under the NIMA exchange rate last Iranian year,” he said.
According to Salehabadi, also, more than $1.69 billion was exchanged in the organized foreign exchange market, which is 176 percent more than the preceding Iranian year.
The director general pointed out that moreover, 299 million worth of euro was exchanged in the organized foreign exchange market, which is 186 percent more than the preceding Iranian year.
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.
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 268,315 rials, and the price of $1 is 242,926 rials.
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