Dollar Approaches 32,000 Tomans in Iran’s Free Market

Several Iranian media outlets and Telegram channels that report daily on currency exchange rates have reported that the dollar rate is approaching 32,000 tomans.

Based on the latest published prices, the dollar exchange rate in the market on Sunday, October 20, reached 31,700 tomans in Tehran.

Gold coin prices also surged in today’s market, reaching 16 million tomans.

Tasnim News Agency reported that the news of “reimposition of sanctions on some Iranian banks” by the U.S. government is one of the main reasons for the increase in currency and gold coin prices in Iran.

The U.S. Treasury Department, on Thursday, October 17, in line with intensifying maximum pressure policy against the Iranian government, blacklisted 18 Iranian banks that had previously been exempt from some American restrictions.

Abdolnasser Hemmati, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, previously stated that news related to the Trump administration’s plan to sanction banks had a “psychological effect” on Iran’s currency market.

The U.S. dollar rate at the beginning of this year was 16,000 tomans, but gradually showed an upward trend and is now being traded at approximately double the rate from the beginning of the year.

In recent months, Iran’s Central Bank reduced the dollar price by injecting dollars into the market in certain cases, but economic assessments show that given current economic problems and crises, the Central Bank cannot permanently implement such a policy to control the market.

The Donya-ye Eqtesad newspaper reported on October 20 that the current market situation is the result of an “emotional reaction” to new U.S. sanctions and wrote that “concern about the future” has caused “many people” to enter the gold coin and currency markets and there is “fear of further price increases.”

While the immediate and widespread impact of the new U.S. government sanctions on Iran’s currency market and economy is clearly observable, Iranian government officials have repeatedly described the U.S. government’s actions as “propagandistic” and “electoral.”

Kamal Kharazi, head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said on Sunday, October 20, regarding the pressure of sanctions on the Iranian people that “there is inflation but people are enduring the economic pressure.”

Source: Radio Farda