Photo: Essam al-Sudani/Reuters

Iran’s currency has plummeted to a new all-time low of 219,000:1 v. the US dollar, a drop of more than 45% since this spring.

But apparently powerless to check the crisis, neither the Government nor the Supreme Leader mention the latest fall.

Government intervention had held the Iranian rial at 150,000:1 for months, but the currency finally broke amid declining production, investment, trade, and employment.

The rial shattered its previous low of 180,000:1, set in September 2018 just before the Trump Administration imposed comprehensive sanctions, and broke the 200,000:1 mark on June 23.

The Government said it was injecting “hundreds of millions” of dollars into currency markets to prop up the rial, but the measure gave only a few days of relief.

See Iran Daily, June 28: Government Fails to Halt Record-Setting Currency Slide

Officials blamed Coronavirus and psychological warfare by Iran’s “enemies”. President Hassan Rouhani insisted, “The shock created in the foreign exchange market is temporary and has no fundamental economic reason.”

But there was no word from the Government on Saturday. Instead, Rouhani focused on the resurgence of Coronavirus, after his Administration began re-opening businesses, mosques, and public spaces from April 11.

The official Iranian toll is 11,408 deaths and 237,878 cases, with the highest daily rate of fatalities since the outbreak began in February.

Rouhani told the National Coronavirus Task Force that an order for masks in public will take effect on Sunday. He again appealed for “observing health protocols by everyone”.

The Supreme Leader has not issued a public statement since June 27, when he told the judiciary to pursue corruption “decisively”.

Iranian State and semi-official media is also silent this morning, preferring stories about Iran’s battle v. the Trump Administration over the 2015 nuclear deal.