– Following the goal of making Iran Capital Market reach in trading instruments and after the successful launch of selected index futures, now the Tehran Stock Exchange is to host real put/call options on a test run and for Isfahan Oil Refinery (PNES) anytime soon.
– 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.
– After the first 8 months of 1397 (2018/19), the total non-oil exports surpassed USD 31.491 bn which made Iran Trade Balance positive for USD 2 bn. The figure is raised 12.96% in value contrary to the same period last year. Major exports of Iran were gas condensates (8.81%), liquid propane (4.25%) and other light oil products except for petroleum (3.5%). The top 5 export destinations of Iranian products are Iraq (21.46%), China (20.52%), UAE (16.17%), Afghanistan (7.13%) and India (4.99%).
– 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.
– Yesterday, the first VP of president Rouhani warned about the future of Iranian Pension Funds. According to stats, 100% of Armed Force Pension fund costs is supplied by the government, directly from the budget sources, while this figure for National Pension Fund is hovering around 70-80%. Donya-e-Eqtesad reviewed the global experience in this regard and advised the administration to take 4 precautionary measures just before the explosion:
– In their latest take against Iran Oil Exports, the secretary of US Treasury has announced that Iran oil buyers will be granted exemptions only if they agree to reduce their purchases more than previous level (20%) of 2013-15. Moreover, Steven Mnuchin told the press that the US is negotiating with SWIFT organization in order to cut Iran’s access to financial transactions. However, he accepted the fact that zeroing Iran oil exports in months after the sanction snapback is not viable.
– After the recent directive allowing Iran Central Bank to get involved with the nation’s FX market, now the cabinet members is to expand the scope of CBI activities even more to include not only FX policies but also monetary ones. Doing as such, the CBI has now granted 3 new instruments to balance the currency/monetary needs: