Iran Rial Hits Record Low as US Blockade Squeezes Oil Revenue
Open-market dollar tops 2.72 million rials on Sunday as Tehran sells dollars to slow the slide
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File photo: Iranian 500-rial banknote. Photo: Parsa 2au, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mehdi Darabi, an aide to the central bank’s governor on foreign exchange affairs, blamed part of the slide on what he described as false predictions by US officials of an Iranian economic collapse.
“It is suggested that the Iranian economy is about to crash... The enemy is using this to affect the exchange rate of our currency,” Darabi told state television, according to Reuters. He added that the current fall of the rial was temporary.
Official dollar sales draw criticism
Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday that five Iranian banks were selling up to $10,000 to each person over 18 at a rate of 2.57 million rials per dollar under an official foreign-currency program, Iran International said.
Lawmaker Mehdi Kouchakzadeh criticized the program during an online parliamentary session. “Other than their friends, dealers and thieves, who can afford to buy this $10,000?” he said, as quoted by Iran International.
Many Iranians have turned to dollars, other hard currencies or gold as a hedge, Reuters reported. The pressure comes as Tehran and Washington remain stuck over terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the wider conflict.
