The world according to GRP — Thursday, January 04, 2007:
Oh, BTW, Iran has dumped the dollar
Iran started accepting payment in euros for some of its oil exports in 2003, although the invoicing remained in U.S. dollars.
According to a Bloomberg report dated Dec.6, 2006 (and cited by Wikipedia), "The Tehran Times said today Iran has started substituting euros for dollars in oil sales," and "Iran Daily reported Iran wants to cut its dollar-based transactions to a minimum..." That was so vague that I wasn't sure it was news.
Greater clarity emerged on Monday, Dec.18, when Al Jazeera quoted an Iranian government spokesman as saying "The government has ordered the central bank to replace the dollar with the euro to limit the problems of the executive organs in commercial transactions," and "We will also employ this change for Iranian assets [in dollars] held abroad... Foreign income sources and oil revenues will be calculated in euros and we will receive them in euros in order to put an end to our dependence on the dollar." Ouch.
That story didn't get much coverage. Indeed I missed it myself until Jan.2, when Paul Craig Roberts summed it up this way: "On December 18 Iran announced that it will cease to use the US dollar as reserve currency."
On Dec.19 and Dec.20, it was much more widely reported that the U.S. Central Command had asked for a second carrier strike group to be sent to the Persian Gulf region; but that request had been made in the preceding week and therefore does not seem to be related to the Dec.18 announcement. On Dec.22, the second carrier was identified as the USS John C. Stennis.
Copyright © Gavin R. Putland except as otherwise attributed. Posted at The world according to GRP under the title Oh, BTW, Iran has dumped the dollar. You may republish this item verbatim on your website or blog provided that you include this notice (with hyperlinks).
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