TEHRAN, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is working to expand the role of Iranian currency, rial, in the basket of its foreign trade, the head of CBI's Exports Department was quoted as saying by Financial Tribune daily on Saturday.
In line with plans to eliminate the U.S. dollar from Iran's foreign trade, the Central Bank of Iran is pursuing the policy of promoting the role of Iranian currency in the basket of its major trade partners, Samad Karimi said.
"The goal of the central bank is to entrench the rial in the currency basket of other nations, meaning that our major business partners would employ the Iranian national currency for imports as we use their national currencies," Karimi said.
"CBI has defined the regulations so that Iranian banks can open rial accounts for their foreign peers, which also paves the way for foreign banks to open accounts for their Iranian counterparts as part of multilateral monetary agreements," he said.
The U.S. dollar is in no longer used in the foreign exchange interbank system of the country, he added.
Iran has signed two agreements with Turkey and Pakistan to trade in their local currencies.
Iran and Turkey's strong political will has led to the currency swap agreement that was finalized some weeks ago, Karimi said, adding that "such a will currently exists between Iran and Russia as well and the negotiations have gotten close to suitable results."
