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struggling to secure food shipments under suffocating US sanctions. Although the sanctions are not supposed to apply to food and humanitarian goods, many traders shy away from dealing with Iran, partly because of the difficulties in arranging financial transactions that do not trigger sanctions relating to the banking system.
Indian trading houses have contracted to export to Iran about 350,000 tonnes of sugar for shipments landing in October to December at about 21,600 rupees ($302) a tonne on a free-on-board basis, the trade sources were on October 16 reported as saying.
On international markets, December white sugar settled at $347.60 a tonne on October 17.
Under the US regime sanctions, Iran is blocked from the global financial system. That includes a sanctions bar on the Islamic Republic using US dollars to transact its oil sales. Under an agreement, Iran sold oil to India in exchange for rupees. However, it can only use those rupees to buy Indian goods, largely items it cannot produce enough of domestically.
Since May this year, the US has been attempting to drive all Iranian oil off world export markets. Theoretically that would preclude the continuation of such bartering, unless India takes some oil shipments under the sanctions radar. China is widely suspected of taking substantial deliveries of Iranian oil using ‘ghost ships’ that engage in ship to ship transfers of crude consignments and turn off their vessel location beacons to hinder parties that attempt to track their movements on the oceans.
9.1.8​ Property sector news
Bumpty Tehran property market steadies a little on a monthly basis
The average price for a square metre of a residential unit in Tehran stood at Iranian rial (IRR) 127mn ($3,016 at the official exchange rate, $1,123 at the free market rate) at the end of the Persian calendar month of Mehr (ended October 22), marking 0.4% m/m and 47.7% y/y increases, ILNA has reported citing Central Bank of Iran (CBI) data.
The CBI surveys the property market via its online residential sales system which logs sales on the national level. The severe devaluation of the rial together with soaring inflation in the past year and a half since the US reintroduced heavy sanctions against Tehran has wrought some havoc with Iran’s property market.
Also according to the official data, the total amount of residential unit transactions in the Iranian capital of 15.2mn people in Mehr reached 3,400, up 22.0% m/m and down 63.7% y/y.
District 1, consisting of uptown neighbourhoods, had an average price of IRR269.6mn per sqm, while District 2, also uptown, had an average price of IRR219.9mn per sqm.
At the other end of the scale is District 18. It appears to now be the cheapest area in Tehran with an average per sqm value of IRR55.2mn. District 19 was a little more expensive at IRR61.75mn.
The most sales in the cited calendar month were seen in moderately priced District 5, which accounted for 15.1% of all sales. It was followed by Districts 2 and 4 with 9.1% and 7.9% shares of sales, respectively.
53​ IRAN Country Report​ November 2019 www.intellinews.com