Page 33 - IRANRptNov20

Iran’s total external debt at $9.33bn in March 2019
Iran's total external debt decreased 17% to $9.33bn at the end of the previous Persian financial year (ended March 20), according to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and IBENA on July 8.
Despite suffering from bad debt internally, Iran is in a remarkably strong position in terms of its international debt, most notably down to international lenders not being allowed to interact formally with the Islamic Republic.
The central bank report shows that Iran's external debt reached $9.339bn at the end of the Iranian fiscal year ending March 2019. In comparison, Turkey’s external debt reached $286.2bn at the end of 2018, according to its central bank, ​Hurriyet ​reported.
Iran’s short-term external debt totalled $7.18bn at the end of March this year and $2.15bn is mid-term and long-term debts.
The central bank report then switches to euros saying, “Iran’s potential commitment was placed at €8.23bn of which €6.33bn belongs to mid-term and long-term debts and €1.86bn belongs to short term debts”.
“At end of March 2019, Iran’s external debt was placed at $9.3bn, recording a decrease of $0.4 billion over its level at end-February 2019." the CBI said. The CBI added, "At the end of March 2018, Iran’s external debt was placed at $11.3bn, recording a decrease of $2bn over its level during Iran’s fiscal year.”
7.0​ FX
Iran’s rial stages recovery after central bank intervention
In some better news for the economy, the rial bounced back from record lows to a near one-month high against the dollar on October 20 after the central bank said it had injected around $375mn into the market to support the troubled currency.
The dollar was selling for around IRR277,000 on the unofficial market, down from IRR304,500 the previous day, according to foreign exchange site Bonbast.com. Business daily ​Donya-e-Eqtesad's​ website gave the dollar rate as IRR288,000, down 24,000 rial day on day.
Nevertheless, the currency has lost around 52% of its value in 2020.
Ebrahim Mohammadvali, head of the Tehran gold and jewellery traders union, was quoted by news website Fararu as attributing the decline of the dollar to a "heavy offer of hard currencies on the market by the central bank".
"This is also behind a fall in the prices of gold and coins," Mohammadvali added.
The central bank currency market intervention was its fifth such intervention in a week.
Tuesday's rise took the rial back to its trading level on September 22, before
Iran - FX
Sep-18
Dec-18
Mar-19
Jun-19
Sep-19
Dec-19
Feb-20
May-20
Sep-20
Currency (units per EUR) (eop)
48,754
48,011
47,165
47,754
45,926
47,055
46,543
45,835
49,274
Currency (units per USD) (eop)
42,000
41,995
42,000
42,000
42,000
42,000
42,000
42,000
42,000
33​ IRAN Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com