Iran to unify forex rates 6 months after nuclear deal

July 6, 2015 - 0:0

TEHRAN – Iran’s Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif says foreign currency exchange rates in the country will be unified 5-6 months after finalizing a deal with world powers on the country’s nuclear program.

The central bank’s main responsibility is to prevent emotional shocks in the market, which is currently stabilized. However, currency rates may be lowered after the unification process takes effect, the IRNA news agency quoted Seif as saying on Sunday.

U.S. dollar market and official exchange rates in Iran were respectively 33,130 rials and 29,399 rials, on July 5.

Iran and the group P5+1 (the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) are in talks to strike a deal over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. They are in a seven-day extension to a July 10 deadline.
While the six powers try to impose limitations on Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran is pushing for the removal of sanctions on its economy.

The major part of the sanctions, including those on oil, gas, petrochemicals, insurance, and shipping are related to the nuclear program.

Establishing appropriate banking relations after resolving the international issues will be a prerequisite, he noted.

In April, Seif said that the Central Bank of Iran does not intend to prevent from the falling trend of foreign currency prices.

He added that if the nuclear talks culminate and prices of foreign currencies fall the bank will only monitor fluctuations and curb price shocks.

Foreign currency prices in Iran were nearly steady over a decade, but the U.S. dollar has almost tripled against the Iranian rial since three years ago.