Iran’s rial has continued its decline, as the central bank announces an injection of up to $2 billion to support the currency while the economy faces US sanctions and a naval blockade, Reuters reports.
The US dollar has been sold at around 2.688 million rials, up from 2.632 million on Friday, according to free-market tracking website bon-bast.com, while alanchand.com reports 2.695 million rials per dollar.
State television says state banks have begun selling up to $2bn to support the currency, which has lost more than half of its value in the past year.
Mehdi Darabi, an aide to the central bank’s governor on foreign exchange affairs, blames the decline of the rial partly on what he calls false predictions by US officials of the collapse of the Iranian economy.
“It is suggested that the Iranian economy is about to crash … The enemy is using this to affect the exchange rate of our currency,” Darabi tells state TV, adding that the current fall of the rial was temporary.
