Dollar Reaches 4700 Tomans

Iranian news agencies reported that the price of the dollar reached 4700 tomans on Sunday, January 21. This figure represents the highest dollar rate in 2017. According to Tasnim news agency, the dollar price briefly hit 4710 tomans, but after the central bank injected dollars to currency exchange offices, the price returned to 4595 tomans. Reports indicate that the euro has also seen the highest price increase among other currencies, rising by 123 tomans to reach 5703 tomans. Additionally, the price of gold coins, which has increased over the past week, reached 1,521,000 tomans on Sunday, marking the highest rate for gold coins this year. Tasnim reported that 'with the intensification of turmoil in the market, many currency exchange offices have closed their shops in protest against this situation.' The prices of currencies, gold, and coins in Iran increased following protests and demonstrations last month, with each US dollar trading for over 4420 tomans on December 31. The price of each US dollar was 4203 tomans on December 24, just before the protests began. In discussing the increase in dollar prices in the Iranian currency market, Fereydoun Khavand, an economics professor and economic expert, told Radio Farda that the Central Bank of Iran has always kept the dollar price artificially low by injecting currency into the market to control inflation. However, when tensions arise at the domestic or international level, the 'spring of currency prices' is released, causing the dollar price to surge. Khavand pointed out that the government of Hassan Rouhani decided from the beginning to prevent the dollar price from rising or to minimize the rate of increase, while inflation in Iran is 'even at 10 percent' much higher than the inflation rate in the dollar region, and therefore the exchange rate should gradually rise. This economic expert emphasizes that since the exchange rate did not rise gradually, we see that, as in the past, the currency spring is once again being released. On Sunday, Tasnim and ILNA news agencies reported from the Tehran free currency market, citing owners of some exchange offices, that the Central Bank has always reduced prices by injecting currency into the market, but this time it has 'withdrawn' and has refrained from providing dollars to the market for several days. Meanwhile, Amir Khajasteh, head of the Economic Corruption Combat Faction in Parliament, said on Sunday that the government intends to raise the dollar rate 'to 5000 tomans to unify it.' Economic officials in Hassan Rouhani's government have previously denied any interference in the intentional increase of foreign currency prices. Valiollah Seif, the head of the Central Bank, announced on January 17 that based on the annual trend, currency rates usually decrease in the months of Bahman and Esfand. The state-run IRNA news agency also reported that the increase in the dollar rate in the free market, especially in the months of Azar and Dey, is due to increased demand for companies to settle accounts with their partners and trading partners at the end of the calendar year. Previously, in 2012 during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, the dollar price rose from two thousand tomans to over three thousand tomans. In this context, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad identified 22 individuals, without naming them, as the 'ring leaders of currency market turmoil,' and his first deputy, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, reported on October 22, 2012, the arrest of an individual named 'Jamsheed Bismillah,' stating that he was the cause of disruption in the Iranian currency market and 'determined the currency price in Iran from a stool.' Jamsheed Mirabi, referred to by Rahimi as 'Jamsheed Bismillah,' denied the allegations against him in a July 2014 interview with the economic newspaper Ta'adol, stating that he was arrested in October 2012 along with 90 others.