Iran has cut its allocation of subsidized currency for imports of goods and equipment.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said on Saturday that it had earmarked some $32.134 billion worth of subsidized currency to imports in less than seven months to October 18.
The figure represents a 20% year-on-year decline as allocations had exceeded $40.405 billion for more than seven months to October 28, 2024.
The CBI said it had earmarked $8.364 billion in heavily subsidized currency for imports of basic goods and medicine over April-October, slightly down from $8.757 allocated over the same period last year.
The lender has a rate of 285,000 rials per US dollar, which it applies to basic goods imports. That comes as the market price of the US dollar was 1.07 million rials in Tehran on Monday.
The rest of the CBI allocations for imports are carried out using a secondary rate, which was 703,000 rials per US dollar on Saturday.
The bank said that it had spent $22.878 billion on that rate on imports of other goods and products, including equipment needed for manufacturing, over the seven months to late October, slightly up from $21.855 billion spent over the same period last year.
Another $0.892 billion was spent on imports related to Iran’s services sector, down from $0.903 billion reported last year, according to the CBI figures.
Last year, the bank had allocated some $8.89 billion to importers who had carried out exports as part of efforts to ease the access of importers to subsidized currency. There was no mention of those allocations this year.
Iran has imposed controls on spending of hard currency for imports in recent years to cope with the economic impacts of US sanctions, which restrict its oil exports and its access to the international banking system.