Iran confirms intention to replace dollar with euro in oil sales.

Iran confirms intention to replace dollar with euro in oil sales. (Taz).

Iran wants to receive its oil money in euro rather than US dollar, Safar Ali Keramati, deputy head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude oil marketing, said.

Recovering oil debts as well as new crude sales money in euro is Tehran’s priority, Keramati said, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported Feb. 6.

The European consumers will not face any problem for euro payments, he added.

Earlier Reuters quoted a source in NIOC that Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief.

Iran was allowed to recover some of the funds frozen under US-led sanctions in currencies other than dollars, such as the Omani rial and UAE dhiram.

The US officials estimate about $100 billion of Iranian assets were frozen abroad, around half of which Tehran could access as a result of sanctions relief. It is not clear how much of those funds are oil dues that Iran would want back in euros.

Last month, NIOC's director general for international affairs told Reuters that Iran "would prefer to receive (oil money owed) in some foreign currency, which for the time being is going to be euro."

Indian government sources confirmed Iran is looking to be paid in euros.

Yuan outperforms euro, becomes 2nd most popular trade finance currency.

Yuan outperforms euro, becomes 2nd most popular trade finance currency.(RT).

The share of the yuan in global trade finance has jumped from 1.89 percent in January 2012 to 8.66 percent in the form of letters of credit and collections in October 2013, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) data shows.

The share of trade settlements in the euro fell from 7.87 percent to 6.64 percent in the same period. The US dollar still leads with 81.08 percent of foreign trade payments using the American currency in October. 

The most active yuan users are Chinese and Hong Kong companies which account for about 80 percent of the total foreign trade operations in the yuan. The remaining 20 percent is spread among Singapore (12%), Germany (2%), Australia (2%) and other countries (4%). 

"The renminbi is clearly a top currency for trade finance globally and even more so in Asia," Franck de Praetere, SWIFT’s Singapore-based head of payments and trade markets for Asia Pacific, commented in a statement.

 “I think it is more to do with using China as a carry trade – people want to get their money into China,” says Nick Verdi, Asia FX strategist at Barclays. “With global interest rates so low, China really is the only place where you can get such a large carry. Trade finance is one of the key avenues to take advantage of that.”

According to SWIFT, in October the yuan remained the world’s 12th most popular means of payment, its share decreased to 0.84 per cent from 0.86 per cent in September. Even though value of payments grew by 1.5% for the month, payments in all currencies rose by 4.6% 


Hong Kong, the largest yuan hub outside China, has accumulated a record 782 billion yuan ($128 billion) in October. The same month the UK’s Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to make London an offshore banking center for the yuan.

Leading Economist John Williams “We’re In a No Win Situation…"This is end of the world type stuff"I hate to say that.