13:17 - 6.02.2019

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February 6, Fineko/abc.az. The heads of the central banks of Iran and Iraq, Abdolnaser Hemmati and Ali al-Allak, signed in Baghdad an agreement on the launch of the payment mechanism between the two countries.

News agency IRNA informs that the main task of the agreement is to remove obstacles in the payment for electricity and gas imported from Iran by the Iraqi side. The mechanism should also help with payments for other goods. The agreement was signed after negotiations between members of two countries’ delegations, which were conducted at the Al-Rashid Hotel in the Iraqi capital.

"To date, both the public and private sectors have achieved impressive volumes of trade turnover with Iran, but there are problems in the field of interbank settlements, and in this connection exporters face certain difficulties," Al-Allak said.

After US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran in May 2018 and resumed US sanctions, the Iranian economy encountered serious problems in the banking sector. Thus, under pressure from Washington, Tehran was disconnected from the SWIFT system, that seriously hampered the financial relations of Iranian business with foreign partners.