ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s economic calamities have boosted the purchasing power of business owners in the Kurdistan Region.
“The collapse of Iranian currency has really helped us. Our currency is now strong. If we had $100,000 investment for exporting Iranian items, now we can buy these items with $50,000, which has a great profit for us,” Majid Sadiq, a member of Erbil Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw.
Iran is one of the region’s biggest exporters, and the Kurdistan Region is a big customer, with three official international customs gates on the border and 12 semi-official ones – not to mention thriving smuggling networks.
“Any change in Iranian market will have great impact on the Kurdistan Region. Since the Iranian currency is not stable now, the business transactions of our investors with Iran have decreased,” Navzad Khafor, deputy-head of Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw.
In the last six months, Iran’s currency has lost more than 50 percent of its value. Iranians have reacted by trying to invest in dollars and gold. On May 12, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, sending a wave of shocks through Iranian markets.
The US has called on nations and private companies to cut their trade with Iran before the complete return of US sanctions in November.
Despite these developments, business officials from Iran and the Kurdistan Region held a three-day trade conference on June 20 to discuss ways to develop trade ties. As the US marginalizes Iran on the international market, Iran may increasingly turn to the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdish producers, particularly those in the agricultural sector, however, will be watching the flood of cheap foreign imports closely, wary of its impact on their own incomes.
“The collapse of Iranian currency has really helped us. Our currency is now strong. If we had $100,000 investment for exporting Iranian items, now we can buy these items with $50,000, which has a great profit for us,” Majid Sadiq, a member of Erbil Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw.
Iran is one of the region’s biggest exporters, and the Kurdistan Region is a big customer, with three official international customs gates on the border and 12 semi-official ones – not to mention thriving smuggling networks.
“Any change in Iranian market will have great impact on the Kurdistan Region. Since the Iranian currency is not stable now, the business transactions of our investors with Iran have decreased,” Navzad Khafor, deputy-head of Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw.
In the last six months, Iran’s currency has lost more than 50 percent of its value. Iranians have reacted by trying to invest in dollars and gold. On May 12, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, sending a wave of shocks through Iranian markets.
The US has called on nations and private companies to cut their trade with Iran before the complete return of US sanctions in November.
Despite these developments, business officials from Iran and the Kurdistan Region held a three-day trade conference on June 20 to discuss ways to develop trade ties. As the US marginalizes Iran on the international market, Iran may increasingly turn to the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdish producers, particularly those in the agricultural sector, however, will be watching the flood of cheap foreign imports closely, wary of its impact on their own incomes.
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