The reduction of multiple foreign exchange rates from three to two – official rate and market rate – and the handling of rial’s depreciation in the market by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) were among the most important financial developments of the past fiscal year (ending March 2014).
The CBI sold more than $25.8 billion in the market during the period, in a bid to slow rial’s depreciation, which lost around 60 percent of value.
Based on the latest report published by CBI, outlining the significant economic changes over the past fiscal year, the total amount of US dollars sold in the domestic market shows 38.8 percent growth compared to the amount from the year before.
Accordingly, $19.4 billion of this amount was spent in interbank transactions and $6.4 billion was pumped into registered currency exchange businesses centers. The average official exchange rate for the dollar was 21,250 rials. That shows a 73.4 percent growth compared to the last year’s average rate.
The report also reflects that since the presidential election in 2013 and adjustments managed by President Hassan Rouhani, market exchange rates followed a stable downward trend. The annual average for the market exchange rate over the last year and for most traded currencies was as following:
Considering the sudden increase in the official exchange rate in the market, referenced by the CBI, the official variation rate was significantly higher.
The highest variation rate - for official exchange rates - belongs to British Pound Sterling with 28.33 percent increase according to CBI.
In contrast with Sterling, the Japanese yen experienced the lowest variation rate with a 26.14 percent growth.
