Iran signs monetary agreements with three new 'AXIS' countries.

Iran signs monetary agreements with three new 'AXIS' countries. (ISNA).

IRAN - Deputy Head of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Gholamali Kamyab said the country has concluded bilateral monetary agreements with Iraq, Turkey and Russia.

His remarks came after a delegation from the Central Bank of Iran visited Russia three months ago to finalize a monetary agreement between Tehran and Moscow. The two sides managed to reach an agreement on several fields.

Concluding the deals, the trading would be done by local currencies of these countries instead of euro and dollar.

The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) is a multilateral currency swap arrangement among the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Japan, and South Korea. It draws from a foreign exchange reserves pool worth US$120 billion and was launched on 24 March 2010. That pool has been expanded to $240 billion in 2012.

The initiative began as a series of bilateral swap arrangements after the ASEAN Plus Three countries met on 6 May 2000 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at an annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank.

After 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, member countries started this initiative to manage regional short-term liquidity problems and to facilitate the work of other international financial arrangements and organizations like International Monetary fund. Hmmmm....anyone believing 'Sometimes NATO ally' 'Islamist' Turkey can be relied on needs a thorough medical.