– After the last and final deadline that FATF imposed on Iran to ratify anti-money laundering directives, now the big question is how will Iran act on that? Spokesperson of the Government of Iran, Eshaq Jahangiri, announced that the head of powers has already approved the FATF related amendments and it shall be implemented soon.
– The head of Iran Action Group announced that the US will not extend exemptions of Iranian oil buyers that were granted previously. Brian Hook told the press that these exemptions aimed to stop the global oil price hikes and it is not likely that the United States extend the 6 month period. Last year 8 countries, including South Korea and Japan who still are not buying oil from Iran regardless of the immunity they have, were exempted from the ban on buying Iranian oil.
– The foreign minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told the press that EU is not willing to pay its dues when it comes to Iran Dedicated SPV. Apparently, the results from countless hours of negotiations with the European partners in JCPoA was indeed not fulfilling for Iran and the matter reached a dead end after all. “It costs EU more no to develop what they promised,” said Zarif in his interview.
– For many years Iran had, and still have, the worst type of Energy Subsidies payments in the world which has only resulted in a weak and unbalanced economy for the nation (Iran Economy). The FOB price of petroleum hovers around 40 cents in the region and considering the domestic price of gas (IRR 10,000 – 10.52 cents!) it is clear that the Iranian government pays
– Expected to be a new derivative, the future contracts on 30 blue-chips of Tehran Stock Exchange will be open to trade from December 16, 2018. These futures will be expired in March 2019 and can only be traded via online trading platforms. The underlying assets of this new derivative are stocks of 30 giants of TSE and IFB with the following details:
– Senior European diplomats have claimed that France and Germany stepped up for hosting Iran dedicated SPV after the rejections by Luxembourg and Austria. In the suggested structure, if France host that SPV then a German official would be as its manager and vice versa.
– The share of oil exports in Iran FX revenues has been reduced over the past few years which shows that the economy is now less dependent on oil sales. During the first 10 months of 2018, the share of oil exports reached below 48% of total FX revenues. This figure surpassed 80% decade. The dependence of Iran economy to oil exports heralds that the nation was successful in producing industrial goods to compensate for the reducing piece of the oil pie.
– After the confusion made by the US Department of Treasury on the latest status of Iranian Banks with regards to the SDN list and the secondary sanctions (being still connected to SWIFT), an analysis has been performed by Donya-e-Bank news agency showing the map of Iranian Banks in a picture. According to the below table, almost all banks in Iran is under the SDN list, however, the ones with no “Secondary Sanctions” tick on their status are clear to deal with:
– Today and after the full snapback of US sanctions on Iran along with adding almost everything to OFAC’s SDN list, 10% of the newly sanctioned Qaed Bassir Petrochemical Co. (listed under BSRZ ticker) offered publically on Iran Fara Bourse via book building method with a price ranging from IRR 8,000-8,500 per share. The company produces ABS with a capacity of 30K tonnes per annum. BSRZ earnings jump for 128% on the H1 contrary to the previous year.
– Backing down from the zeroing Iran oil sales, the United States grants case exemptions to 8 nations with regards to their oil purchases from Iran just days away from sanctions snapback deadline. Apparently, India, Japan, South Korea, Iraq, China and Turkey are among this shortlist exempted from Iran Sanctions.