Iran's central bank announced a raft of measures to prop up the rial currency on Wednesday after a rush for dollars forced a devaluation. The measures, including raising domestic interest rates, come after the bank said earlier this week it was injecting billions of dollars into the market to stabilise the currency.
Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani said the Islamic Republic would also issue more bonds and abolish a sales tax on gold to make other investments more appealing to Iranians who have rushed to buy dollars in recent weeks, depressing the value of the rial. "We have used (only) one of our tools to control the market," Bahmani told state TV news, referring to the currency intervention. "We are going to use all of our tools to create a balanced market."
While high prices for Iran's oil exports will have replenished its foreign exchange reserves, analysts say a sanctions campaign, led by Western states, that has made cross-border financial transactions more difficult has contributed to pressure on the rial.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.