Iran’s currency fell to a record low, plunging to 613,500 to the dollar, as its people celebrated the Persian New Year.
On Sunday, people were trying to exchange rials for foreign currency at Tehran’s main hub of exchange shops in Ferdowsi Street, but most were closed due to the Nowruz holidays, which are run from March 20 to April 2.
The two-week holiday is an opportunity to travel abroad, driving demand for U.S. dollars and Euros.
The exchange rate strongly affects other markets, including housing and rentals.
The price was 590,000 to the dollar on March 18, the last workday before the holiday.
Many Iranians have seen their life savings evaporate as the local currency has depreciated. Today, it’s worth about one-twentieth as much as it was in 2015, when Iran signed a nuclear accord with world powers.
Since then, it’s fallen from 32,000 rials to the dollar to the hundreds of thousands. In February 2023, it briefly reached a nadir of 600,000 reals to the dollar, and since then has not risen above 439,000.
The government’s Statistics Center put the country’s inflation rate for Feb. 2024 at 42.5%, while Central Bank said it was more than 46%. There is no explanation for the discrepancy.
