Archive

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Rial In Free Fall: Hits New Low


The Iranian currency, the rial, hit a new low of 40,000 rials to the dollar on Wednesday. (File photo: ISNA)

15 comments:

  1. Why are news regarding the Iranian currency announced in Rial, wouldn't that be the equivalent of the U.S. Dime? Yet the U.S currency is officially always refered to in no other term than the Dollar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Things aren't looking very good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anon 8:08 PM,

    The official currency of Iran is indeed rial. You are probably referring to the term 'touman' which is a slang meaning 10 rials.

    ReplyDelete
  4. pretty soon rials won't be quoted in dollars, but will be exchanged by the pound, with a bundle of rials weighing ten pounds being worth two pounds of pistachios.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Where is this information from? All of the currency exchange sites (mesghal etc.) are down.

    Who is trading a dollar for 4,000 tomans without fear of arrest?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow Ahmadinejad has been shown to be an utterly incompetent imbecile.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's important to point out that there are more than one currency exchange rates operating inside Iran, and that the figure provided in this post is representative of only one of these exchange rates.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anon 11:43 PM,

    We have been closely following the currency exchange free market over the years and have only announced the rates when we could get two reliable and independent source; this time is no exception and we are confident on our reporting.

    On another matter, as Mark has pointed out the 40,000 rials to the dollar is the free market rate of the currency. The government has its own array of rates, from 12,260 for its "official" rate, to 28,500 for "controlled" rate. The market rate however best approximates the real value of the rial. The protests over currency losing value and the closure of Grand Bazaar in Tehran on 3 October were directed at the rial plummeting in the free market.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Fars news" today reported that yesterday's rate was 38000 today's rate was 37500 rials for the dollar."
    امروز در بازار غیررسمی نرخ دلار آمریکا با کاهش 50 تومانی نسبت به روز گذشته به 3750 تومان به فروش رسید، یورو نیز 4900 تومان دادوستد شد.
    "
    http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13910727000471

    ReplyDelete
  10. Please read this article

    http://www.businessinsider.com/actually-there-is-no-hyperinflation-in-iran-2012-10

    To see why your analysis is pathetically wrong and deluded.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anon 1:33 PM,

    Which and whose analysis is deluded? This very short post did not offer any analysis. The rial is in free fall, is that what you are objecting to? Are you saying the rial is not plummeting? Tell us who’s delusional and why.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Please read also this article too

    http://djavad.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/more-on-the-falling-rial/

    also somethuing on foreignpolicy.com

    your analysis is deluded... but speculating about the rial while not sitting in iran and earning rial is pathetically wrong

    ReplyDelete

  13. Anon 2:36 PM,

    Thanks for recommending Professor Salehi-Isfahani’s post on the rial situation. I am re-posting relevant parts of his article here for the benefit of the readers of these comments:

    “I had said that the currency crisis did not amount to economic collapse. It is also true that, as a matter of habit, I did not discuss conspiracy theories (which I rarely believe), such as those that would blame the government for creating this mess on purpose in order to make more rials, or those that blame a few ringleaders for corrupting the system.
    Sanctions are not a game. They are designed to inflict pain on the people of the country they are imposed on, and as we have seen they are doing just that in Iran, and not all social strata feel the pain at the same rate. Iran’s government is in a position to decide who gets hurt more and who get off with less pain.

    For example, it has decided that keeping chicken production going is more important than paying the tuition of thousands of students abroad. That is a choice that many would disagree with, but to say that it makes sense from the point of view of Iran’s government is not to minimize the gravity of the situation or the level of pain on those who lose more than others.

    If the economy has not collapsed, economic growth has and with it the hopes of young people for finding a job and setting up new families.”

    ReplyDelete
  14. "That is a choice that many would disagree with"

    This gets to the root of your misunderstanding about the currency problem. Only a tiny tiny minority of Iranians are in a position to have their children study abroad. That group is too small to matter.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anon 8:48 PM

    Your attitude reflects the regimes attitude.So therefore nothing matters to them unless it effects one of their stooges.
    Hasn't it occurred to you that the tiny minority or "group" as you claim are the members of the Aghazadeh clan that are running Iran at present?

    ReplyDelete