TEHRAN- Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has supplied about $12.5 billion for importing basic commodities as well as coronavirus vaccines in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-November 21), the CBI Governor Ali Saleh-Abadi announced.

“Fortunately, the central bank's access to the country's foreign exchange resources has increased this year…. We are in a very good situation in terms of the inflow of foreign currency into the country, and we expect the situation to improve in the near future,” Saleh-Abadi told the state TV.

As Mehr News Agency reported, the official noted that the CBI is expected to supply a total of $36 billion for the imports of basic goods, medicine, and services in the current fiscal year (ends on March 20, 2022).

He also said the country’s exporters have so far injected $22.4 billion into the Forex Management Integrated System (locally known as NIMA), which is 70 percent more than the figure for the previous year’s same period.

“Facilitating the return of export revenues [into the country’s economic cycle] by providing incentives to exporters and creating direct exchanges between them is on the central bank's agenda,” the official said.

CBI had supplied $9.5 billion for the imports of basic goods as well as medicine in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22).

Back in August, the CBI had announced that the bank supplied about $15 billion for importing basic goods, raw materials, and machinery as well as medicine in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22), $4.6 billion of which was allocated for the imports of basic goods and medicine, which was also 70 percent more than the allocation in the previous year’s same time span.

Iran’s former President Hassan Rouhani had said in July that enough basic and strategic goods were imported into the country and there are no worries over the supply of such commodities.

EF/