TEHRAN – The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is planning to launch a new currency exchange market in a bid to control the prices and to make it easier for importers to access hard currency generated from exports.
CBI Governor Muhammad Reza Farzin has said that the Currency Market of Mutually-Agreed Prices will be a place to determine the price of hard currency through auctions.
Farzin said that the CBI will play the role of a supervisor in the market and will only intervene by injecting its hard currency resources at times it deems it necessary. 
The CBI governor said that a current system for the exchange of hard currency between importers and exporters, known as NIMA, will gradually be integrated into the new market.
The CBI has a rate of 285,000 rials per U.S. dollar which it applies to imports of basic goods, including medicine.
Iran has been using the NIMA price, reported at 502,308 rials per U.S. dollar, for allocating hard currencies to trade and imports of non-essential goods.
For the past several years, Iranian exporters have been required to supply their proceeds to NIMA to ease the access of importers to hard currency resources in the country.
CEO of the CBI-controlled Iran Center for Exchange of Currency and Gold said that exporters and importers will be able to directly negotiate and agree on prices for selling and purchasing hard currency in the new market.