Which foreign currency will replace US Dollar in Iranian reports?

Valiollah Seif, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, in an interview announced that within the next two months the base currency for the economic reports will change from the US-Dollar to another currency.

The small role of the US-Dollar in Iran’s foreign trade has led the Central Bank to seek an alternative currency for the country’s business reports.

Seif announced two criteria for the new currency: “First, stability and second, a significant role in the foreign trade of the country.”

Since Europe, China and the UAE are Iran’s largest trade partners, the Central Bank is seeking to choose among two options: either using a currency basket or taking the most commonly used foreign currency in Iran’s international trade.

This decision is due to the fact that ever since the initial sanctions by the USA, the majority of international payments by Iran have been carried out using currencies other than the US Dollar. On the other hand, the recording and reporting of accounts was done based on the US Dollar which caused the fluctuations of the dollar to be transferred to the Iranian economy. The Central Bank has therefore decided to close the gap between the operational currency and the reporting currency, in the next two months.

At the moment, each US-Dollar is converted to 32366 IRR and each Euro to 34633 IRR under the official exchange rates. In the unofficial market however, each US-Dollar and Euro are traded for 38270 IRR and 41750 IRR, respectively.