Iran eases currency rules

Iran's Central Bank lifted a ban on exchange offices, allowing them to resume work in a move aimed at bringing in badly needed hard currencies.

The bank also gave the green light for Iranian "legal institutions and businesses" to bring gold and foreign currency into Iran, according to the governor, Abdolnasser Hemmati.

A first set of U.S. sanctions that had been eased by the Obama administration under the terms of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal will take effect again on Monday, following President Donald Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the accord.

Those sanctions target Iran's automotive sector as well as gold and other key metals. Renewed sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry and banking sector will resume on Nov. 4.

Hemmati said that "money exchangers are allowed to sell and buy foreign currencies" once again, to help Iranians get better access to "services and travel abroad."

He added that the official exchange rate of the national currency, the rial, will remain at 42,000 rials to the dollar for vital imports such as medicine and food.

The decision goes into effect on Tuesday. Hemmati said the Central Bank will try "not to intervene in deciding on the price" of foreign currencies.

Hemmati said the government's decision in April to enforce a single exchange rate to the dollar had caused "serious problems" for the country.

He maintained the Central Bank's decision reflects Iran's "strength" in the face of renewed U.S. sanctions.

"We are facing an economic war and the U.S. government is restoring sanctions and also trying to increase them. But our government is powerful ... and is capable of opening up the foreign currency market on the same day," The Associated Press cited Hemmati as saying.