Page 31 - IRANRptAug21

Plan to switch from rial to “toman” falls into slow lane of Iran’s parliament
“In light of such expectations, the decline in forex rates is logical,” Hemmati was quoted as saying.
The rial has lost more than 70% of its value since May 2018, when Trump abandoned the nuclear accord and introduced a sanctions regime against Iran unprecedented in its scope and economic impact. During the course of the four-year Trump presidency, the rial lost 80% against the greenback.
Iranian MPs are examining a motion put forward by the outgoing Rouhani government and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) to cut four zeros from the Iranian rial (IRR) and switch to the “toman,” Young Journalists Club reported on July 12.
Former CBI governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, who failed to make much impact as a candidate in Iran’s recent presidential election, made the redenomination of the IRR and switchover from the rial to the “toman” the signature proposal of his tenure at the central bank, given that soaring inflation over the 41 years of the existence of the Islamic Republic has made the rial worthless. Currently, one dollar trades for IRR250,000 on the country’s black market, making transactions both locally and international extremely difficult. However, with Hemmati gone from the central bank, questions remain whether the plan for change is still moving ahead without him.
"The Economic Commission and the [parliamentary] Majlis Research Center are still studying the proposal. This is a time-consuming process," Hossein Marhaba, a spokesperson for the commission, said.
President Hassan Rouhani sent the redenomination bill to the parliament in 2019 with the backing of Hemmati.
The CBI last November started the transition to the redenomination by introducing an IRR 100,000/Iranian toman (IRT) 10 bank note (worth $0.37 at the free market rate and $2.37 at the official rate). The “10 toman note” followsed the “100 toman cheque”, a larger note used as currency but officially designated as a non-signed cheque.
The “toman” is generally liked by Iranians, who use it on an informal basis as it cuts down on zeros in calculations, with one toman representing IRR10.
31 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com