Iranian rial at new record low, just days after previous nadir
Tracking website says currency now sold at 2.688 million to US dollar; Iran central bank injects $2 billion, official blames decline on Washington's predictions of collapse
DUBAI — Iran’s rial continued its decline on Saturday, as the central bank announced an injection of up to $2 billion to support the currency while the economy faces US sanctions and a naval blockade.
The US dollar was sold at around 2.688 million rials, up from 2.632 million on Friday, according to free-market tracking website bon-bast.com, while alanchand.com reported 2.695 million rials per dollar.
It marked a further drop from a record low set last week at 2.5 million rials to the dollar. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
State television said state banks began selling up to $2 billion to support the currency, which has lost more than half of its value in the past year.
With an inflation rate of more than 70 percent, life is becoming ever tougher for ordinary citizens unable to afford basic necessities or rent as a US blockade cuts the state’s financial lifeline – oil exports.
Many Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies or gold.
Mehdi Darabi, an aide to the central bank’s governor on foreign exchange affairs, blamed the decline of the rial partly on what he said were false predictions by US officials of the collapse of the Iranian economy.
“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 TV, adding that the current fall of the rial was temporary.
US President Donald Trump and his top aides are insistent that Iran’s economy cannot sustain a conflict much longer and have expressed confidence that Tehran will be forced to capitulate.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an appearance on Fox News, said Iran was heading toward an economic “cataclysm.”
Administration officials say that a combination of new sanctions and a US naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian oil from going to market has imperiled Tehran.