In an open letter, over 50 Iranian economists warned of a collapse in the Iranian economy, stating that the severe inflation of the rial has hit a high it had never reached in the past 75 years, since World War II.
They also considered the continuation of what they called “wrong economic policies” that would lead to the suffering of Iranian families as the reason for this high rate of inflation in the country, according to the Iranian news agency ILNA.
The experts also called on the heads of the parliament and judiciary to intervene.
“The alarms of danger are ringing, the circumstances are the most serious and most difficult than one can imagine because the fourth collapse in the currency began to eat and destroy everything,” the letter said.
The experts pointed out that the current “incorrect policy” of managing the collapse in currency caused the currency to lose about 70 percent of its value since April under the threat of revived US sanctions, with heavy demand for dollars among ordinary Iranians trying to protect their savings. They added that mismanagement in commodity markets and random pricing being placed by traders in the country further increases economic concerns over the next months.
In the Iranian capital, money exchange shops offered 135,000 rials for one US dollar at one point, drawing crowds of onlookers and those wanting to trade. Only the day before, the rial was selling at 170,000 to the dollar, with prices recently going as high as 190,000 to the dollar.
Although the Iranian government has taken measures to reduce inflation by injecting hard currency into the market, and preventing traders and currency exchanges from selling dollars while banks would buy dollars from citizens, the inflation rate did not decrease much. This is despite local media reports stating that the official that the price of the riyal fell below 100 thousand riyals during the past two days.
This warning about the high rate of inflation and the collapse of the Iranian economy comes amid fundamentalist movement in parliament threatening to overthrow the government of Rouhani through questioning most ministers and withdrawing confidence from them, against the backdrop of economic crises and the deterioration of currency and the cessation of many industries in the country.
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Last Update: Sunday, 7 October 2018 KSA 16:00 – GMT 13:00
