Official: Gold-for-export receipts top 1m tons in March–May
Iran imported a record amount of gold in the past three months as part of a mechanism that allows businesses to import gold to settle their export-related dues to the government, according to a senior official who is familiar with the country’s trade issues.
Alireza Paymanpak, who led Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization until earlier this month, said that Iran’s gold-for-export receipts had totaled only 80 kilograms in the three years before March, according to Press TV.
Paymanpak said imports of gold by exporters to settle their foreign exchange debts to the government is one of the best solutions to get around the U.S. sanctions that put restrictions on Iran’s access to the international banking system.
“More than one ton of standard gold bullions have been imported into the country with the help of the central bank (CBI) as part of (a commitment) by small exporters to return foreign exchange,” he said in a tweet in Farsi.