Iran is having problems selling its oil, AFP quoted Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Tuesday, in the latest high-level
confession that Western economic sanctions are taking their toll on the
Iranian economy.
"There are some problems in selling oil and we
are trying to manage it," Ahmadinejad said on state television, according to AFP. US-led
sanctions against Iran have aimed to force it to shut down its illicit
nuclear program, which Western countries believe could be aimed at
producing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.
According
to the report, Ahmadinejad also outlined ways his country is working to
bypass the sanctions, including telling "an oil ship which route it
takes."
The Iranian president expressed confidence his country
would continue to survive the Western attempts against it. "We have oil
and the world needs it," he said.
Iran's economy has been hit
hard in the past year by sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear
program. The country has largely been cut off from the international
banking system and the rial has lost about half its value against the
dollar in the free market.
The
sanctions have slashed Iran's oil exports, which in normal times
accounted for nearly four-fifths of its total exports and two-thirds of
government revenues. In June, Tehran admitted its oil exports had shrunk
between 20 and 30 percent.
In January this year, Iran announced
an 8 percent devaluation of the rial to 12,260 against the dollar and
said it would enforce a single exchange rate, aiming to stamp out black
market traders. But that proved impossible with the sanctions cutting
inflows of hard currency into the country.
In March, authorities
said they would allow free market trading to coexist with the official
rate, and last month they introduced a three-tiered system; the official
rate would be used to import basic goods such as meat and medicine, a
rate of 15,000 to buy factory machinery and intermediate goods, and the
free market rate to import luxuries and other goods.
Reuters contributed to this report