CBI: Forex revenues increasing steadily

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif announced that the country's foreign exchange (forex) revenues have considerably increased in a steady manner. "The increase in the volume of oil and gas exports as well as reduced obstacles to the country's non-oil exports in recent months have resulted in a rise in aggregate foreign exchange revenues," Seif told the CBI's website on Wednesday. He noted that the rise in Iran's forex revenues has opened a new horizon for bringing back stability to the market and the Central Bank's intervention in the forex market. Last month, Iran received the fifth installment of its $4.2bln-frozen assets as agreed upon in the interim nuclear deal between Tehran and the six world powers. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi said that another $450-mln installment from Iran’s blocked oil revenues has been released and deposited to the CBI account in accordance with the November 2013 agreement reached in Geneva. Araqchi added that this was the fifth tranche of the eight installments of Iran’s blocked revenues that the Sextet of powers was committed to release and deposit to the CBI account. Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) clinched a long-sought deal in November in the Swiss city of Geneva. The two sides have agreed to stage-by-stage implementation of the interim agreement reciprocating one another since January 20. The accord requires the West to ease some of the existing sanctions in exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building measure not to develop the national nuclear program for a six-month period. The frozen Iranian assets will be released in eight states, as agreed, and Tehran will dilute its 20% enriched uranium within the next 12 months.