Iranian Rial

[screwball]

And this one for good measure

Iran president orders single forex, lower lending rates 

شنبه 24 بهمن 1394 - 13:46

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gestures before starting to address a banking forum in Tehran on February 13, 2016. (president.ir)

Iran must unify multi-tiered foreign exchange rate and cut lending interest rates as part of post-sanctions plan to prop up the economy, President Hassan Rouhani says.

“Forex rate must be unified next [calendar] year (starting March 21) so that stability in the market will be bolstered and corruption will be stopped,” Rouhani told a banking forum on Saturday.

He stressed the necessity of cutting lending interest rates, saying: “After the administration curbs inflation and [cuts it to] a single-digit rate, high banking interest rate would be incorrect and will harm the economy.”

Rouhani said Iranian banks have to step up their efforts in favor of national economy now that international sanctions have been lifted on Iran. Interest rates offered by Iranian banks are set at 20% for long-term deposits and at lower floating rates for short-term accounts.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, has been traditionally traded at two rates one being traded by CBI and the other one set by money changers.

On Saturday, the US dollar traded for IRR 30,180 at official rate and for IRR 35,060 on open market.

The rial depreciated 60% against the US dollar since the end of 2011 when the US and its allies started imposing anti-Iran sanctions.

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif said last month that $28 billion of Iran’s unfrozen assets would go to the central bank and $4 billion will be transferred to the state treasury as the share of the government.

Rouhani also said that his administration’s “financial and money discipline” has contributed to curbing the country’s runaway inflation rate.

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Sunday, February 05, 2017

Malaysian Economic Mission Due in Iran Today

 

Malaysia’s Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong will lead the economic and technical missions on palm oil, timber and rubber products to Iran and India from February 5-9.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said the delegation would comprise representatives from the ministry, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Malaysian Rubber Board, Malaysian Timber Council and the private sector, Malaysia’s Bernama news agency reported.

“The missions aim to promote and strengthen exports of palm oil, timber and rubber products to Iran and India, and strengthen business linkages between the private sectors of both countries with Malaysia,” it said.

The ministry said Mah would officiate the opening of MPOB’s regional office as well as Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar, otherwise known as POTS Iran 2017, in Tehran, Iran, and Palm Oil Networking Seminar in Mumbai, India.

“It will hold bilateral discussions with the ministers responsible for trade, agriculture and health in Iran during the visit from Feb 5-7,” it said.

The ministry said the meetings would focus on, among others, issues related to the safety and nutritional benefits of palm oil and areas of cooperation to strengthen bilateral trade.

During January-November 2016, trade between Malaysia and Iran was valued at RM2.59 billion (about $580 million).

Exports from Malaysia to Iran were valued at RM1.97 billion ($440 million), of which commodity products contributed RM1.55 billion ($350 million) or 78.7% of total exports.

The major commodity products exported during the same period were palm oil products valued at RM1.21 billion ($270 million), timber products  worth RM33.76 million ($7.6 million) and rubber products valued at RM268.94 million ($60.7 million).

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Boeing’s $8 billion deal to sell 80 jets to Iran Air was already in trouble before President Donald Trump took office. Now it’s even more in doubt.

And that could mean trouble for American factory workers whose jobs depend on that sale, CNNMoney reported.

Trump has long been harshly critical of the Iran nuclear deal that allowed the previous US administration to clear Boeing’s sale to Iran last December.

After he assumed office, he signed an immigration ban restricting people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, from entering the US. The ban has been temporarily overturned by a US court.

Then, after Iran performed a missile test, he issued a new round of Iranian sanctions on Friday morning.

These new sanctions don’t specifically kill the Boeing deal, but they could make it harder for it to go through, should Iran retaliate and cancel the deal. A similar deal for European rival Airbus to sell 100 Airbus jets to Iran for about $10 billion could also be in jeopardy. Since the Airbus jets are made with mostly US parts, that sale also needs US approval.

“This doesn’t end well for the jetliner deals,” said Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst with the Teal Group.

Boeing would not comment directly on its outlook for the deal.

“We’re operating under our current ... license,” said Boeing on Friday. “Should we receive new guidance from the Treasury Department, we will act accordingly.”

The problem for Trump is that a hard line stance on Iran could hurt the US manufacturing jobs he says are his top priority. Boeing and its US suppliers such as jet engine makers GE and United Technologies are major US employers. 

Boeing said at the time the Iran deal was announced that it would support nearly 100,000 jobs at the company and its suppliers. It has a large backlog of orders, so there won’t necessarily be 100,000 layoff notices if the deal falls through. But Boeing has been trimming jobs.

Likewise, if Trump nixes the Airbus sale, that could cause problems for the US aircraft parts makers, according to Adam Pilarski, vice president with industry consulting firm Avitas.

“That would really annoy the Europeans. And that could cause problems for the US because it could move the Europeans not to rely as much on American parts.”

Aboulafia said the Trump administration does not necessarily have to block these deals for them to fall through. He said Trump’s tougher stance on Iran could hurt their ability to finance an Iran purchase with western banks, since they might be reluctant to sign on to risky deals.

“If nothing else, the climate for financing jets is going to get worse and worse, and that alone could kill the deal,” he said. “That risk premium was already pretty high.” 

The aviation analyst added that neither Iran nor Boeing or Airbus have provided details on the financing particulars.

[gregp]

Forex rate must be unified next [calendar] year (starting March 21)

This woke me up. 

Thanks.

[screwball]

12 minutes ago, gregp said:

Forex rate must be unified next [calendar] year (starting March 21)

This woke me up. 

Thanks.

The posts from the past few days should have shaken the shite out of you...lol

[gregp]

6 minutes ago, screwball said:

The posts from the past few days should have shaken the shite out of you...lol

Lol. I'm ready for Dubai.

[WheresmyRV?]

I'm up for meeting some of you to go too Dubai if needed.  I will be nervous about going over there seeing that I have never been to the ME before.  Hopefully though Canada will come through so I won't have to got too Dubai.

[gregp]

3 minutes ago, WheresmyRV? said:

I'm up for meeting some of you to go too Dubai if needed.  I will be nervous about going over there seeing that I have never been to the ME before.  Hopefully though Canada will come through so I won't have to got too Dubai.

South Korea might be another option. Iran seems to have good trade ties with them.  I've been to South Korea. Had a great time.

[pokerplayer]

3 hours ago, WheresmyRV? said:

I'm up for meeting some of you to go too Dubai if needed.  I will be nervous about going over there seeing that I have never been to the ME before.  Hopefully though Canada will come through so I won't have to got too Dubai.

While I am not the least concerned with Dubai ( been there about 20 times ) I found it to be extremely safe. I will keep on top of things here as far as cashing in here in Canada goes.

pp

[markb57]

perhaps someone can come up with some travel scenarios? I am not an international traveler and a little anxious about the ME. Also, once there, how we might go about cashing out, either in $ or euro's or whatever. Sorry, just a little cautious with all the turmoil going on right now.

[screwball]

 

rench construction company Vinci SA has agreed to develop Mashhad International Airport after representatives of the company visited the Iranian airport and held talks with its officials, the deputy head of Iran Airports Company has announced.

“Our first priority is development of Mashhad International Airport. We are in serious talks over the development project. Development of Isfahan International Airport is our second priority,” Hossein Esfandiari was also quoted as saying by the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development’s news portal.

The French company signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of Mashhad International Airport, also known as Shahid Hashemi Nejad International Airport, on the sidelines of a business forum held in Tehran last week. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was accompanied by a 100-member economic delegation, attended the forum.

Vinci had previously signed a preliminary agreement with Iran for the development of the airport as well as that of Isfahan International Airport during President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to France in January last year.

Vinci is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899. With a workforce of over 179,000, the firm is the largest construction company in the world by revenue.

According to Esfandiari, the French company will build a 43,000-square-meter international terminal and a 25,000-square-meter domestic terminal in Mashhad International Airport. 

“The airport’s apron should also be expanded in line with the development of the terminals,” he said, adding that cooperation will be based on a build-operate-transfer contract.

According to Iran Airports Company’s CEO Rahmatollah Mahabadi, the capacity of Mashhad International Airport is estimated to reach 5 million passengers per year after the two terminals become operational.

Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan Razavi Province in northeastern Iran, is a major international religious tourism hub visited by millions of pilgrims every year.

In the Iranian year ending March 20, 2015, the holy city was visited by 25 million domestic and 1.5 million foreign visitors.

The city’s aviation infrastructure, however, has not kept pace with its booming tourism sector, which is the case with most Iranian airports, including Isfahan International Airport and Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

Earlier this year, IAC signed an MoU with Italy for the construction of a new passenger terminal in Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

The MoU is between the Iranian airport and Italy’s SEA Group (Società Esercizi Aeroportuali), which is in charge of development and management of Italy’s Milano Malpensa airports and airport systems, including all services and activities related to the arrival and departure of aircraft, airport safety, passenger and cargo handling, and development of commercial services.

In the first phase, an 80,000-square-meter passenger terminal will be constructed. It could be expanded to 120,000 square meters in the future as demand grows, the agreement stipulates. 

Mehrabad’s current capacity is to handle 14 million passengers annually. The new terminal will add the same amount of passengers to the airport’s capacity. 

The plan, which is estimated to require €250 million in investment, also includes landscaping and construction of parking space for 6,000 vehicles alongside the passenger terminal.

Revamping Iran’s airports is a top priority for the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, which engineered a deal with world powers to resolve a longstanding dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program and remove sanctions imposed for years on the country’s aviation industry.

During Rouhani’s France visit, Iran also reached agreements with Aeroports de Paris and Bouygues SA for cooperation in the construction of a new terminal at Imam Khomeini International Airport. The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development plans to increase IKIA’s capacity to 45 million passengers per year.

A €50 million investment agreement has also been signed with Vitali SPA—an Italian construction firm and general contractor—to develop Tabriz International Airport, in the provincial capital of northwestern East Azarbaijan Province.

The agreement concerns investment, design and construction of a new passenger terminal in Tabriz airport in two development phases. In the first phase, the terminal is estimated to be built on a 20,000-square-meter area to accommodate the landing of one wide-body and two average-body aircraft at the same time.

[screwball]

3 hours ago, markb57 said:

perhaps someone can come up with some travel scenarios? I am not an international traveler and a little anxious about the ME. Also, once there, how we might go about cashing out, either in $ or euro's or whatever. Sorry, just a little cautious with all the turmoil going on right now.

I believe Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai will be options even South Korea! 

[screwball]

Iran intends to impose restrictions on US individuals and entities backing regional terrorist groups, in retaliation for fresh US sanctions against more than two dozen Iranian nationals and entities over a recent missile test-launch.

"New sanctions imposed by the US government are inconsistent with US legal commitments and contradicts the spirit and text of UN Security Council Resolution 2231," Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, IRNA reported. 

Resolution 2231 was adopted on July 20, 2015, to ratify the landmark Iran nuclear deal clinched days earlier with major powers.

"In response to the new US move, the Islamic Republic of Iran will take reciprocal measures to impose restrictions on US individuals and companies having had a role in creating and supporting the regional terrorist and extremist groups and in the massacre of and crackdown on the defenseless people of the region," the Foreign Ministry said.

It said the names of the banned US people and entities would be announced later.

The nuclear agreement went into force in January last year to terminate the previous UN resolutions, remove EU sanctions and cease the application of US non-nuclear sanctions.

Iran has conducted several successful missile tests since then, but the latest launch last week was the first after new hawkish US President Donald Trump, who has signaled a tough line on the Islamic Republic, was inaugurated last month.

New US sanctions targeting 13 Iranian individuals and 12 entities were announced in a White House statement earlier on Friday, days after it put Tehran "on notice" over the ballistic missile test and other activities. 

The Trump administration said the sanctions were just "initial steps" and it would no longer turn a "blind eye" to what it said were Iran's hostile actions.

Iran said in its statement that its missile program is purely conventional and only developed to serve defensive purposes. It also asserted the Islamic Republic's inalienable right to reinforce its missile program, noting that no country or international body can have a say in this regard.

Resolution 2231 "calls upon" Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology" for up to eight years.

Iran recently banned American wrestlers from entering the country in response to Washington's "offensive" move to temporarily deny Iranians entry to the US.

[markb57]

Muslim Obama allowed Iran to break the rules. These new sanctions are their own fault. I want this rv too but come on, the world knows Iran is the leading terrorist nation. Iran just has to push their terror agenda even when things are going go for them.

[screwball]

China blocked $18bn of Iran’s petrodollars

Sun Feb 5, 2017 11:36AM

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The exterior of the Central Bank of the Republic of China. 

A report by a leading Iranian newspaper says the country has at least $18 billion still blocked in China in what appears to be a result of complications related to previous sales of oil to Beijing during the years of sanctions.  

The report by the Persian-language newspaper Sharq said the amount had been announced by Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

It added that the amount had been accumulated in China after the government of Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) sealed a contract with Beijing in 2008 by means of which the money for oil that Iran sold to the country would be used as “bail” for exports of Chinese products to the Islamic Republic. 

The scheme apparently was devised after the sanctions made it impossible for Iran to transfer the money for the oil it sold to other countries to its own accounts.  

Nevertheless, Sharq said in its report that it was still not clear how much of Iranian petrodollars China was exactly still keeping.   

Previous reports said China was planning to provide Iran with major loans from the country’s oil money it was holding for to fund Iranian petrochemical projects. 

Officials in Tehran said early last year that “red-tape” was delaying the plan. 

Read more

• 'Red-tape' delaying China funds for Iran

Sharq further highlighted contradictions among officials over the exact figure and estimations that had so far been provided varied from $22 billion to $25 billion and even $47 billion.

“About $18 billion were deposited in Chinese banks by the previous government from oil sales to the country,” Kardor was quoted as saying by the newspaper.  “Accordingly, China was supposed to provide three times the amount that Iran had deposited in its banks in loans to Iranian companies,” he added, emphasizing that it was still not clear how this scheme had proceeded.    

The NIOC chief said Iran would be unable to receive the amount that it had deposited at Chinese banks until the period of the contract that Ahmadinejad’s government had signed with Beijing was over. 

Nevertheless, he emphasized that a legal procedure to return the amount should be created between Iran and China once the contract period was over. 

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[screwball]

Iran says Trump cannot kill Boeing deal

Thu Feb 2, 2017 10:53AM

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Iran says its deal with US aviation giant Boeing is a commercial one and cannot be scrapped through an order by US President Donald Trump. 

Iran has rejected speculations that the deteriorating rhetoric by US President Donald Trump against the country could lead to the cancelation of a major plane purchase agreement with the American aviation giant Boeing.  

Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi told the domestic media that a deal which Iran has sealed with Boeing was “a commercial one” and could not be therefore cancelled through an order by the US president.

“This cannot happen,” Akhoundi emphasized in response to a question on whether Trump could order to kill the deal with Boeing. “This is a commercial deal.” 

Boeing announced a $16.6 billion agreement with the national carrier Iran Air in December, saying the orders were on course to support nearly 100,000 new jobs in the United States.

The deal, however, has already run into opposition in the Republican-run Congress and Trump's travel ban further makes it impossible for pilots, cabin staff and maintenance crews to enter the US for training.

US media earlier this week highlighted concerns that Iran’s deal with Boeing to buy 80 passenger planes had been thrown into doubt following President Trump’s executive order barring travel by Iranians to the US.

Read more 

• Iran Air, Boeing finalize plane purchase deal
• Boeing's Iran deal in limbo after Trump ban

Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan has warned that Iran would seek return of "prepayments with interest" if the Boeing deal were thwarted by Trump’s administration.

The aircraft have to be delivered over 10 years, beginning in 2018. The agreement includes orders for 50 narrow-body 737 passenger jets and 30 wide-body 777 aircraft. Boeing has said the deal was reached under the conditions of a US government license issued in September.

Iran has also signed a deal with the European plane maker Airbus to purchase 100 planes.  It delivered the first plane in January with more deliveries coming up over the next few months.   

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[screwball]

Getting close

Iranian bank to open L/Cs for three countries

Export Development Bank of Iran will soon grant credit lines (L/Cs) to banks in South Korea, Turkey and Iraq, announced the bank's chief executive.

Ali Salehabadi said that the two credit lines, collectively worth €175 million, will soon be approved for two South Korean and Turkish banks, ibena.ir reported.

He added that €100 million have been considered for Export-Import Bank of Korea or Korea Eximbank, while Turk Eximbank will receive €75 million.

The official underlined that the credit lines are not in US dollar and will be issued in either "euro or currencies of the target countries".

Salehabadi also announced that an $18-million credit line will be opened with an Iraqi bank, saying the credit line aims to expand Iran's exports to the neighboring Arab country. He added, "If other Iraqi banks meet the capital adequacy ratio, we are ready to allocate more lines of credit to that country."

This way, he pointed out, Iranian exporters can cash in their exports through this credit line and the Iraqi bank will repay it over a period of two years, said Salehabadi. "All the best exporters, namely 82 percent of top-notch exporters in the country, are our clients."

He further noted that EDBI is in talks with Export-Import Bank of India, Eximbank of Russia and another unnamed Russian bank.  "We are now in the phase of doing the paperwork," he added.

According to the official, the bank has also signed memorandums of understanding with Indonesia Eximbank and the Eximbank of Hungary.

Salehabadi said EDBI's financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) has been one of the main focuses of the Central Bank of Iran since March 21, 2016.

"During the 10 months to January 19, 2017, 198 of the ailing SMEs received $100.4 million in capital from the bank," he said.

In the same period, he added, the bank allocated $104.6 million to "various export-oriented manufacturing sectors with a 5 percent interest subsidy" following an agreement with the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade.

According to Salehabadi, EDBI has allocated $1 billion in loans during the 10 months to Jan. 19 registering a 10-percent rise in working capital loans.

"However, loans allocated to certain schemes have declined since one of the policies approved in the shareholders' meeting of the bank was to increase working capital loans," he said.

"The remaining foreign exchange deposits of EDBI equal $1.32 billion, which marks a 150 percent increase against the figure for the corresponding period last year."

The official said the bank's letters of credit stood at $77.14 million at the end of the month to January 19, 2017, registering another considerable rise of 587 percent.

In conclusion, Salehabadi put the total value of credit lines opened at EDBI at 'about $500 million' and payment orders at $2.7 billion.

[screwball]

Iran announces major oil, gas discoveries

Iran confirmed the discovery of 15 billion barrels of new in-situ oil reserves, but a top official said huge investments and state-of-the-art technology will be required to exploit the reserves.

Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said that around two billion barrels of the newly-discovered reserves were 'recoverable' reported Press TV.

Kardor added that about 1.8 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of in-situ reserves of natural gas — around half of which he said were recoverable — had also been discovered.  However, he did not specify when and where the new discoveries had been made.

Meanwhile, NIOC Director for Corporate Planning Affairs Karim Zobeidi said the overall volume of Iran's oil reserves stood at 771.53 billion barrels, of which around 102 billion barrels would be recoverable at a rate of 24.6 percent.

Zobeidi added that Iran's in-place reserves of natural gas stand at 55 tcm, of which 33 tcm could be recovered at a rate of around 70 percent.

The NIOC chief was further quoted by the Persian-language newspaper Iran as saying that a new round of tenders — scheduled for the next few weeks — would pave the ground for international energy companies to help develop the country's oil and gas reserves.

Kardor also said that Iran's production of high-quality oil would reach four million barrels per day (mbd) before April which, he contended, could be a landmark success for the country after the sanctions that had kept production a little above 2 mbd were lifted in January 2016.

[screwball]

Iran, France to launch joint car production line

Leading Iranian automaker Iran Khodro and France's Peugeot are planning to set up a joint production line to produce automobiles in Semnan Province, announced deputy industry minister.

According to Fars News Agency, Mohsen Salehinia said, "As per a contract signed between Iran Khodro and Peugeot, the joint production line will be launched in late February."

He further stated that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between another Iranian car manufacturer Saipa and some famous international automakers will also become operational in the year to March 2018.

He reiterated that a total of 1.8 million cars are produced in the country each year.

In early July, a joint venture between Iran Khodro and Peugeot (IKAP) officially began operations in a ceremony attended by Iran's Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammadreza Nematzadeh in Tehran.

The inauguration came after the appointment of IKAP's board members as well as the finalization of 17 subsidiary agreements in the cooperation protocol between the two sides.

French carmaker PSA Group was the biggest foreign player in the Iranian market with nearly 30 percent of sales prior to its withdrawal in 2011 due to the sanctions.

In June 2016, PSA signed a €400-million production joint venture renewing Peugeot brand's longstanding partnership with Iran Khodro to manufacture Peugeot 208, 2008 and 301 models for the domestic market and export, starting in the second half of 2017.

[screwball]

2 minutes ago, screwball said:

The official underlined that the credit lines are not in US dollar and will be issued in either "euro or currencies of the target countries".

Hmmm....

[pokerplayer]

I believe these issues with Trump are mere hiccups. There is a lot more at stack for numerous other countries at this time that may try and buck DJT if possible.

JMHO,  pp

[screwball]

13 minutes ago, pokerplayer said:

I believe these issues with Trump are mere hiccups. There is a lot more at stack for numerous other countries at this time that may try and buck DJT if possible.

JMHO,  pp

Could be...

[screwball]

The Central Bank of Iran will ramp up its supervision over risky lenders to prevent their precarious activities from impacting other banks, said an official with the Central Bank of Iran.

"As per the new rating system for Iranian banks, each bank will be given a rank, which is important for supervisory authorities. If a bank gets low ratings, it will be considered as troubled and that will influence interbank interactions and that bank’s interactions with the CBI," said Amir Abbas Hashemi-Nejad, an official in charge of bank performance, Mehr News Agency reported. 

He noted that the central bank has rated banks and credit institutions, implementing corrective measures on them based on CAMELS rating system since 2010. 

Hashemi-Nejad, however, added that bank ratings are going to follow IFRS standards, hence banks and credit institutions will frame their financial statements in line with newer standards, which is taking a longer time for some but the issue is being pursued.

"In our current rating system, which is premised on CAMELS rating system, the focus is on quantitative factors and using the main indices to evaluate the banks with the minimum number of variables and reflect their financial state in the best way possible," Hashemi-Nejad concluded.     

CAMELS is a recognized international rating system that bank supervisory authorities use to rate financial institutions, according to six factors represented by the acronym CAMELS. Supervisory authorities assign each bank a score on a scale and a rating of one is considered the best and the rating of five is considered the worst for each factor.

In late September, Farshad Heidari, the Central Bank of Iran’s deputy for supervisory affairs, announced that banks will be classified under four categories, namely without visible risk, low risk, average risk and high risk.

The International Financial Reporting Standards is a single set of accounting standards developed and maintained by the International Accounting Standards Board with the intention of those standards being capable of being applied on a globally consistent basis—by developed, emerging and developing economies. This will provide investors and other users of financial statements with the ability to compare the financial performance of publicly listed companies on a like-for-like basis with their international peers.

"All Iranian banks will be rated on the basis of a single scheme and private- or public-sector banks would be treated equally but there is no need to publicize the ratings," Heidari said.

[pokerplayer]

Very Interesting article....welcome to the 21 century Iran.

pp

[screwball]

1. Economy
2. Business And Markets

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Tehran Currency Market Unfazed by Trump’s Actions 

 

The currency market has been stable in recent days, ignoring a deluge of news stories that should have conventionally rocked the boat. 

In fact, the domestic market has been mostly indifferent to US President Donald Trump’s recent controversial actions and statements, including ordering an entry ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. 

The rial was traded at 38,100-38,300 to the US dollar on Saturday in Tehran’s market, quite unchanged compared with the previous working day’s close. However, the Association of Bureaux de Change Operators of Iran put the greenback’s exchange rate at 38,000 rials on Saturday.

“I don’t care about what Trump says … Currency rates are unchanged or lower today,” Tehran Chamber of Commerce’s news service quoted a street currency dealer as saying on Monday.

Euro was exchanged for 42,210 rials, marking a 250-rial or 0.6% growth compared with the previous working day. British pound’s exchange rate dropped by 0.23% on Monday and was traded at 48,520 rials, according to Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union’s website. 

However, several moneychangers recorded no change in exchange rates for euro and pound on Monday.

Turkish lira was exchanged for 10,720 rials, according to TGJU, up by 60 rials. Emirati dirham was slightly down against the rial with the Iranian currency at 10,670 to the lira on Monday. 

Hossein Salimi, a member of Tehran Chamber Commerce, believes that Trump’s decisions are not necessarily practical. 

“He addresses issues in general, but his measures prove to be impractical when it comes to details, like the visa ban that was reversed by a federal court. Such comments have no impact on markets,” he added.

Valiollah Seif, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, also said Trump’s measures will have no effect on Iran’s banking relations, mainly because Iran has no direct commercial relations with the US.

“Not concerned about the travel ban; we keep working on improving the economy and our ties with foreign banks,” he was quoted as saying on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting. 

The CBI fixed the official exchange rate for the US dollar at 32,367 rials on Monday, up by 4 rials compared with Thursday’s rate.