Iran's Rials Hits Record Lows

Source: japantoday.com

The Iranian rial has lost about two-thirds of its value since the start of the year and 20% in just the past 2 days. It now trades at 119,000 to the dollar. Many point to the imminent sanctions as the reason for the drop.

The sanctions are just part of the reason, others cite the corruption ridden Iranian economy for the decline.

The Iranian government must have some belief to the internal corruption having some effect, just this weekend the judiciary announced 60 people had been arrested for fraud and trying to undermine the banking system. Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, a judiciary spokesman said that several had direct ties to the government, allowing them to illegally import luxury cars. They may be facing the death penalty under the charge of 'corruption on Earth'.

The Iranian public are becoming enraged at the profiteers whom are using their political connections to access dollars at artificially low rates and sell them on the black market for a huge profit. As the public ire increases, more officials are vowing to be more transparent and introduce more accountability into the system.

In April, officials adopted a plan to fix the exchange rate a 42,000 rials to the dollar. To enforce the plan, they shut down currency trading shop and made it illegal to sell the dollars above the official rate. In June, they were forced to rescind the plan.