Iran's withdrawn cash and EU sanctions

The European Union tightened sanctions ring around Iran by imposing new round of penalties during EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The EU members, who previously blocked 443 Iranian entities and 113 true personalities' assets step by step, this time agreed on Iran oil embargo, alongside freezing Iran's Central Bank assets, gold and petrochemicals trade. Europe has blocked all Iranian banks' assets including Melli, Saderat, Refah, Mellat banks, except Tejarat and Central banks.

Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion in assets from Europe until 2008 to prevent them from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian banking sector was also hit by restrictions, forcing any transactions over 40,000 euros ($51,000) to be authorized by EU governments before they can go ahead.

Then Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, said part of Iran's assets in European banks was converted to gold and shares and another part were transferred to Asian banks.

Iran withdrew 250 tons of its gold reserves from Suisse Credit Bank worth five billion Swiss francs, and transferred them to Tehran.

Suisse Bern-based daily Der Bund reported that apparently Iran has withdrawn 700 tons of its gold reserves, worth sixteen billion Swiss franks, from various Western monetary funds and transferred them to other unknown destinations.

So, Iran seems not to have significant assets in EU to be frozen.

Gold reserves

The Iranian officials urge the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at more than $100 billion.

Governor of Central Bank of Iran Mahmoud Bahmani said in July, 2011 that Iran's gold reserves increased by $10 billion in value, while the Central Bank of Iran assures that the country have sufficient gold reserves for 10 years.

The CBI currently possesses 400 to 500 tons of gold reserves and put behind all the problems caused by sanctions, Bahmani said.

Import and Export

With regarding Iran's $58.5 billion legal import volume in 2010, including $14.6 billion from EU, it seems Iran be able to increase imports from Turkey and Asian countries, including China. Beijing-Iran trade turnover was about $30 billion, but the sides decided to boost this figure to $45 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, EU economic advisor Mehrdad Emadi told Trend last month that China is trading with Iran through national currency, yuan, because of problems in bank transactions through USD with Iran. Then Iran may face USD deficit seriously.

On the other hand, Iranian General Inspection Organization announced earlier that the country's illegal imports reached $20 billion in a year.

The current state of affair on the market directly shows that Iran will inevitably face dollar deficit shortly.

The Iranian government's 80 percent of revenues come from oil export, but China as Iran's biggest oil importer has decreased Iranian crude import by 220,000 barrels per day. India as Iran's second oil importer is seeking the way to pay Iranian oil price in yen or rupee. And finally, Japan and South Korea decided to decrease Iranian oil import respectively by 100,000 and 40,000 barrels per day as Iran's third and forth oil importers.

The scene on the exchange market is also not optimistic. Today, 23 January, the USD rate increased to 21,000 rials, indicating around 10,400 rials rise compared to a year before.