Page 5 - IRANRptNov19
P. 5
GDP decline would be around 6%, but that was before May’s introduction of the US policy to attempt to drive all of Iran’s crude oil exports off world markets.
Some international economists put Iran’s inflation rate a good deal higher than what is portrayed by the country’s official statisticians. Iran’s annual inflation rate rose sharply from about 10% in mid-2018 to about 52% in April 2019.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on September 21 updated the official exchange rates. The pound edged up to IRR51,875 while the euro declined to IRR46,408 on the official CBI exchange rate board. The US dollar, now essentially on official lockdown in Iran, remained fixed at IRR42,000. Iran continues to remove the greenback from daily transactions, partly to get around the US sanctions.
Iran should work to eliminate the gap that currently exists between the Iranian rial (IRR) market exchange rates and official exchange rate, according to the IMF, which will help tame and control inflation and reduce pressure on the exchange rate. The IRR is around two-thirds weaker against the dollar on the unofficial market compared to where it stood before it became clear early last year that the US was switching its Iran policy back to a sanctions-led approach.
Meanwhile, Iran’s redenomination bill was sent to the Iranian parliament by the cabinet on August 21 for debate among MPs, according to ICANA.
Iran is set to remove four zeros from its currency, the Iranian rial (IRR) in the next two years, provided all relevant bodies, including the Guardian Council, government committees and parliament give their blessing. As part of the new currency, to be officially called the “toman”, a new sub-currency named the “parseh”, equal to 100 toman, will be legislatively introduced.
2.0 Politics
2.1 Iran turns screw on nuclear deal signatories’ ‘failures’
by declaring 10-fold increase in enriched uranium
Iran on November 4 announced a 10-fold increase in its enriched uranium production.
The move, declared on the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran which sparked the Iran hostage crisis, is another step in increasing the pressure on remaining major power signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal to offer the Islamic Republic meaningful protection from US sanctions if they want the Iranians to stay in the accord unilaterally abandoned by the Trump administration in May last year.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said enriched uranium production was now at 5kg per day. Two months ago it only stood at 450g per day.
The production increases were secured following the introduction of two new
5 IRAN Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com
