Continuing Nightmare of the 22,000 Toman Dollar; Revealing Government’s ‘Ad Hoc’ Decisions in Currency Pricing
Valiollah Seif, former head of the Central Bank, recently explained in an interview how the dollar was priced at 4,200 tomans, saying that he and Jahangiri wanted to announce a price of 4,500 or 4,300 tomans for the official dollar, but Hassan Rouhani told them that the announced dollar price “should under no circumstances exceed 4,200 tomans.” The former Central Bank chief even responded to the question of where the 3,800 toman dollar price in 1396 came from by saying: “Just like that. There was no calculation involved.”
The statements of this former official from Hassan Rouhani’s government indicate that officials of the Islamic Republic made decisions about the fate of currency and dollar prices in Iran without any calculation or review.
These remarks, which reflect the height of poor planning and hasty decision-making in the Islamic Republic, have been met with reactions from users on social media. One user reacted to this “ad hoc” way of announcing the dollar’s value:
This rapid dollar increase, although it began in the first half of last year and reached a price between 11 to 12 thousand tomans, accelerated in the second half of the year due to rising gasoline prices, domestic protests, and international tensions with Iran. The dollar price reached the brink of 15 thousand tomans in December and in the final days of the year the dollar price even rose to 15,900 tomans. However, ultimately, foreign exchange market transactions in 1398 ended with a price of 14,900 tomans for the US dollar and 16,900 tomans for the euro.
However, the dollar price in Farvardin of this year also reached 16,150 tomans and ultimately the dollar ended the first month of the year at a price of 15,400 tomans. In Ordibehesht month as well, the dollar price fluctuated between 15,400 and 16,300 tomans.
This economic crisis and the daily rise in dollar prices have made conditions harder for people than ever before, while on the other hand, one of the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly announced on Monday, the 16th of Tir month, that “the first salary of representatives of 11 million tomans was deposited, plus 200 million tomans for housing and 20 million tomans for other expenses were deposited into our account.”
The publication of this news sparked many protests on social networks, and many users compared the first salaries of the new parliament representatives with their own economic conditions and the 22,000 toman dollar.
Donald Trump, President of the United States, said in December of last year about Iran’s economic situation: “Iran is a different country. Iran is now full of uprising and rebellion. We have imposed severe sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Their economic growth declined 25 percent. We can never allow the Iranian regime to have nuclear weapons. They give weapons to the insurgents.”
Since President Trump took office, the United States, declaring that the nuclear agreement JCPOA has not prevented the destabilizing activities of the Islamic Republic, as the world’s greatest government supporter of terrorism, withdrew from the JCPOA.
Source: Voice of America
