With Iran’s currency at a historic low, police in Tehran have shut down currency exchange shops and arrested their owners.
Amid continuing economic problems and weeks after protests across the country, Iran’s rial has fallen to 47,500:1 v. the US dollar before recovering on Monday to about 45,500:1.
At the height of the Ahmadinejad Government’s economic difficulties after protests over the disputed 2009 Presidential election, the rial did not rise above 45,000:1 v. the dollar. The Rouhani Government settled the situation after it took office in 2013, but the rial has been slipping over the past year. Last summer it stood at about 37,700:1.
Iranian officials have tried to blame the crisis, at least in part, on speculation. That statement led to the police’s move on Wednesday against “moneychangers”.
The head of Iran’s Police Criminal Investigation Department said, “We are investigating those who impact the foreign exchange market and those who support them behind the scenes and today it has become clear who these individuals are.”
Iranian media said free-market trading in the rial was close to a halt in Tehran on Wednesday because of the security presence. Some currency exchange shops around Ferdowsi Street, the center of the trade, were shut.
On Monday night, President Hassan Rouhani maintained in a TV interview that the devaluation is due to “interim factors” and is temporary: “We tell the public openly that all the country needs, including that needed for import, and what the exporters need and what is needed in the services, the administration will meet them and the fluctuations in the currency rate will not last long.”
See Iran Daily, Jan 24: Rouhani Acknowledges Problems in 1st TV Interview Since Protests
