The head of the Iranian Central Bank, Valiollah Seif, has announced that Iran will stop using the American dollar as its currency of choice in its financial and foreign exchange reports from the new Iranian fiscal year that begins in March 2017. According to Iranian press reports, Tehran might opt to use the euro instead. “In other words, we have to set a currency as the basis of financial reporting that has better stability and greater application in our foreign trade,” Seif said.
Western media have quickly linked this decision by Iran to the January 28 executive order by President Donald Trump to ban all Iranian travelers to the United States. However, Seif’s announcement appears to be part of broader economic calculations in Tehran and not a knee-jerk reaction to Trump administration’s decision to ban Iranians.
Seif had earlier been reported to have stated that “because Iran conducts the lion's share of its trade deals with the EU, China and the UAE...it is left with the two options of "selecting a basket of currencies or choosing the currency that plays the biggest part in foreign trade.” Interestingly, this Iranian announcement generated very little attention inside Iran itself even though Western outlets publicized it.
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