Page 26 - IRANRptAug18

Central bank continues with transparency campaign listing importers with access to lower official rial exchange rate
Revolution in 1979, should over the years have been held accountable for Iran’s lack of economic progress, Etemad newspaper reported.
Adding to the jitters in Iran are claims from respected economists that although the government says the country’s inflation rate stands at around 9%, in reality, when factors such as the black market rial-to-the-dollar exchange rate are taken into account, it is now at more than 200%.
A third list of importers who in recent weeks have received the advantageous official Iranian rial (IRR) rate to the dollar is to be released by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), its PR department said on July 25.
The first list was released on July 1 by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade after the Rouhani administration urged the ministry to publicise the information to quell tensions among the public . They were driven by suspicions that only well-connected companies and certain special interest groups were obtaining the fixed lower rate of IRR42,000 to the USD. The unofficial rate has risen to more than twice that—it was moving around the IRR93,000 mark on July 26, according to bonbast.com—amid the currency collapse sparked in Iran by the unravelling of the nuclear deal a nd the US decision to attempt to throttle the Iranian economy to force the country to meet certain of Washington’s Middle East policy goals.
The approach taken by officials to controlling the foreign exchange market and preserving Iran’s hard currency reserves in recent months has led to much public disquiet. On July 21, it was announced by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology that Iranian importers of phones worth less than $300 were to be given access to the official exchange rate to the dollar.
The move came after a row blew up over how the official rate was being made available for imports of luxury items such as the iPhone 10 and similar top-end smartphones. There were reports of traders immediately selling on the merchandise at prices set with the much higher unofficial rate and pocketing the difference. Rules on permissible imports have lately been changed in a way that indirectly bans expensive iPhones and Samsung’s even more expensive Galaxy series.
7.1 Cryptocurrency
US confiscating Iranian cryptocurrency wallets around the world
The US government has confiscated more than 500 bitcoins belonging to Iranian-held “wallets”, according to a report by Iranian tech news website Techrasa published on July 16. The targeting of cryptocurrencies by US authorities comes after Iran announced earlier this year it was seriously considering using alternative currencies to circumvent impending US sanctions.
Unofficially, Iranians have been buying crypto in bulk for the past 12 months, to bypass trade sanctions and evade the severe devaluation of the Iranian rial (IRR) amid the intensifying US assault on Iran's economy.
One Iranian trader who has been buying cryptocurrencies for several years told bne IntelliNews : "I have been in a constant tug-o-war with my online trading app [which he did not name] over them shutting me down and holding
26 IRAN Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com