Iran will face foreign currency crisis if exports do not double; Expert
“If Iran cannot double its current export level in the upcoming years, the country will face a foreign currency crisis,” Chairman of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce told.
Speaking to ILNA, Majid Reza Hariri said that currently, the condition is in a way that the government can do nothing for two reasons, adding that the first reason is that sanctions have led to the slump in Iran’s oil revenues and the second reason is the coronavirus pandemic.
“The virus pandemic has affected non-oil exports comparing to the previous years, reiterating that even if the no-oil exports had not faced a slump, the country would still have faced a shortage of the forex.”
Hariri noted that in those years that the country had good forex revenues, it used to sell oil worth $120b annually and it had non-oil export worth $30b which made the total revenues some $15b but in recent years and due to sanctions and the slump in the oil price, Iran’s oil revenues have considerably dropped.
On the probable forex revenues of the country this year, Hariri said that it is expected optimistically the country’s oil revenue to be around $5 and the statistics for the first half of the year show that the country’s non-oil exports would be around $30b while the figure was $40b last year.
Hariri added that so this year and at the best, the country would have forex revenues between 35b to $40b while the country in its most economized condition needs $50b.
The economic expert urged the country to continue the resilient and economized policies until the end of the year because the country’s revenues and expenditures do not match.
He reiterated that if the country does not increase its exports and does not double it, it would face the forex crisis.
Hariri noted that due to sanctions, the government is unable to do anything, adding that if the country puts behind this year with this condition, the next year the condition will be tougher.
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