Photo: Karim Sahib (AFP)


The Rouhani Government has failed to check the historic drop in Iran’s currency, which set a new low on Sunday morning.

The rial is now at 206,300:1 v. the US dollar.

On Tuesday, the currency broke the 200,000:1 mark for the first time in the Islamic Republic’s history. The previous low was 180,000:1 in September 2018, just before the Trump Administration imposed comprehensive sanctions.

See Iran Daily, June 24: Regime’s “All Is Well” Over Collapsing Currency

The Central Bank injected $55 million in foreign currency into markets on Tuesday. The rial recovered to 192,000:1 but began to slide as soon as markets reopened on Saturday after the Iranian weekend.

Central Bank head Abdolnaser Hemmati failed to halt the drop with a Saturday declaration, “Over the past few days, hundreds of millions of dollars entered the market through brokers and thwarted many of the plans of those trying to destabilize the foreign exchange market.”

Hemmati had said on Friday that the Bank would not “spray its resources onto the market. Our market intervention will be prudent and goal-oriented.”

Amid long-term economic problems and a drop of up to 95% in oil exports, the currency has fallen almost 35% this spring.

Officials have blamed Coronavirus, psychological warfare by Iran’s “enemies”, and countries such as South Korea failing to unfreeze Iranian assets.

President Hassan Rouhani insisted on Tuesday, “The shock created in the foreign exchange market is temporary and has no fundamental economic reason.”