Rial’s exchange rate set to dollar

tehran — Iran moved on Tuesday to enforce a single exchange rate to the dollar, banning all unregulated trading after the country’s currency, the rial, hit an all-time low.

The country’s senior vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, was quoted by state TV as saying that the official “price of the US dollar will be 42,000 rials as of Tuesday.” He also said that trading at any other price was forbidden and would be considered as “smuggling.”

The decision came late Monday after a two-day hike in prices of foreign currencies that saw rial trading at 62,000 to the dollar — an 18 per cent drop since Saturday. Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said on Tuesday that Iran brings in some $95 billion a year in foreign currency, mostly from crude oil exports, which resumed after the 2015 nuclear deal. At the same time, $80 billion are spent on imports.

However, Iran remains largely cut off from international financial networks because of US sanctions. Rial’s slide is in part seen as stemming from fears the Trump administration will withdraw from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and impose new sanctions.

Head of Iran’s central bank, Valiollah Seif, appeared before parliament on Tuesday to explain the measure, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. He was met with angry objections and interruptions from a group of lawmakers who briefly pushed him around on the podium and demanded his resignation.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Iran has set a €10,000 limit for citizens’ foreign currency holdings outside banks, state media reported on Tuesday.

Citizens have until the end of the month to sell any excess amount or deposit it in banks, the central bank said in a statement published by the Tasnim news agency. Failure to comply would result in legal action against them, the central bank said.