The Central Bank of Iran governor says the bank made available subsidized forex ($1=285,000 rials) worth $3.5 billion for medicine import in the current Iranian year (started March 21).“Considering the need for medical equipment and medicine, a sum of $3.5 billion is allocated for importing medicine, raw material and medical equipment in the current fiscal" Mohammad Reza Farzin was quoted as saying by the CBI website in a meeting with CEOs of pharma companies and Health Ministry officials. "To help accelerate medicine import, the CBI is ready to pay $400 million every month during the first three months of the year," Farzin said.The senior banker noted that loans worth 300 trillion rials are  to be paid to pharma companies in the current fiscal as part of a plan devised by the central bank to help them meet their needs for working capital and ease imedicine and raw material import. The CBI has announced incentives plan for medicine exporters, as per which exporters will have access to more subsidized currency. "However, exporters must be fully committed to repatriate their earnings through official channels."Subsidizing currency in its current format came into effect  after the steep rise in forex rates in the spring of 2018 when the previous administration pegged the subsidized dollar at 42,000 rials and cut the list of goods eligible for subsidies to barely a few essential items, including food, medicine and some raw materials.Former governments allocated billions in subsidies for importing food and medicine selling the greenback for 42,000 rials.Subsidized currency is sourced largely from oil export for importing essential goods, pharmaceuticals and machinery. The past subsidy policy was designed to avoid price hikes in food and raw materials and protect consumers against inflation and price gouging almost always blamed on high forex rates.The Raisi administration decided to end the increasingly costly and corruption-tainted subsidy policy. The CBI, instead, started offering the dollar at 285,000 rials to help prevent huge jumps in the prices of goods.  (ICE TEHERAN)

Fonte notizia: Financial Tribune