TEHRAN (Iran News) – Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi on Wednesday and on the sidelines of the cabinet meeting said the inflation is experiencing downward trend as it declined in last Iranian calendrer month of Tir (June 21-July 22) comparing to the preceding month.

Khandouzi said that inflation rate cooled down last month considerably, expressing hope that the rate would lower in the current month. He added that official statistics show that the long term routes of economy are under control.

He also reported improving the country’s foreign trade, including the 40 percent increase in goods transit.

Khandouzi told reporters that there was no increase in exports and imports in terms of volume and weight, but the higher value-added of the exports increased.

Regarding the customs clearance, the minister said that with the current administration’s order, more than 1 million tons of goods were cleared out of 1.250 million tons.

He reiterated that the country has witnessed 16% rise in imports and 22% in exports and this bespeaks economic trend is improving.

Meanwhile, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said that the body has agreed with the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade on a mechanism to use cryptocurrencies to import goods.

In response to a question about using cryptocurrencies in foreign trade, Ali Salehabadi said that last year it was agreed those who had legally-mined cryptocurrencies could offer them to be used for imports.

Salehabadi also said that about $14 billion in currencies were supplied for the country within the first four months of the (Persian) year, which increased up to 80 percent ($706 billion) compared to the similar period last year.

Daily, he added that more than $10 million were being traded in the agreement market between currency exchange offices, a good anchor to keep the market stable.

On Tuesday, a top Iranian trade official says a first import order using cryptocurreny as a payment method has been registered in the country.

Alireza Peyman-Pak, a deputy Iranian trade minister, said on his Twitter page that the official import order was worth some $10 million.

Peyman-Pak leads Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), a body responsible for registering and processing orders for imports into the country.

The official did not elaborate on more details about the order, including the country from which the import will take place and which cryptocurrency will be used to settle the payment.

However, he said that the use of cryptocurrencies in Iran’s foreign trade will be expanded significantly until September.