Export companies sold $13.5 billion in the secondary foreign exchange market, known locally as Nima, in four months since the beginning of current fiscal year in March.
In a press statement seen on its website on Monday, the Central Bank of Iran said the amount was more than 82% on the corresponding period last year.
Nima is an online platform affiliated to the CBI through which exporters sell their overseas currency and companies buy for importing goods, machinery, equipment and raw materials. In this system, importers declare their currency needs, exporters register their currency proceeds and banks and authorized moneychangers are brokers.
The CBI said non-oil exporters offered $167 million on Sunday alone, marking the biggest daily sale in recent weeks.
Increase in currency trade in the Nima market is partly linked to higher currency rates since last year. As per data, a US dollar hawala was traded for no more than 220,000 in July 2021. That rate now close to 261,000 rials -- more than 15% higher on the year.
Reports say the majority of export income is returned by a limited number of big companies, namely those in the petrochemical, mineral and metal sectors.
Earlier in April, Ahmad Mahdavi, secretary of the Petrochemical Industry Contractors Guild Association, said the industry accounts for a major portion of forex sold at Nima.
In a talk with IRNA, Mahdavi said that the industry generated $14.5 billion in foreign currency last year, 86% of which was offered at Nima. An estimated $12.5 billion from petrochemical firms was sold at Nima, he said.
The CBI says under more facilitative rules announced in recent months, export activity and, by extension, currency revenue has increased.
As per rules, non-oil exporters have to bring back a segment of their earnings in forex hawala and sell it via Nima. They also can sell their money to authorized exchange shops.
Most SMEs in the export sector meet their export repatriation commitment via the “import in lieu for export” mechanism, a method approved in in October 2020 as part of efforts to reform rules and ease the processes involved in bringing back non-oil export revenue.
Exporters can use part of their earnings to import goods, raw material and machinery either for their own needs or for a third party under “currency barter between exporters and importers”.
This provision, however, excludes giant export companies such as petrochemicals, steel and petroleum products.
