Page 29 - IRANRptFeb19

stood at 110,000 to the dollar. Under the change, that would be represented as 11, and using the very widespread informal Toman currency perspective, in which Iranians divide rial sums by 10, it would be 1.1, meaning near-parity with the dollar.
The statement noted that the CBI governor has made it clear to lawmakers at a parliamentary commission meeting that the CBI is maintaining full control over the foreign currency market.
Before the severe devaluation of the rial against the dollar and other hard currencies seen this year under the pressure of renewed heavy US sanctions, former CBI governor Valiollah Seif said in April 2017 that the country was not in the position “to remove one or two zeroes” from the currency and that “it will take another two years to carry out the process”.
As part of the previous 2016-17 bill, the government intended to switch the official currency from the rial to the toman . The Toman is popular as it involves using fewer zeroes.
The seemingly odd timing of Hemmati’s call to push forward with the zeroes move may be emotional over logical considering the impact on Iranians of the jarring devaluation in 2018 which saw the rial lose around 60% of its value year on year.
8.0 Financial & capital markets 8.1 Bank sector overview
US economic sanctions and their impact on Iran’s banking system
Iran’s economy ministry is poised to establish an “anti-sanctions management room” to combat the heavy US economic sanctions introduced against Iran and most particularly their impact on the Iranian banking system, Tasnim News Agency has reported.
Several key institutions in the Islamic Republic have previously said they had made clear preparations for the Trump administration’s economic war on the country, although several ministers have fallen at the hands of parliamentarians dissatisfied with the response to the consequences of the sanctions, while the governor of the central bank was fired during the summer after the Iranian rial (IRR) went over the cliff edge.
The US has sanctioned almost every important area of Iran’s economy, with the first wave of sanctions triggered in early August and the second wave—which crucially hit Iran’s lifeline oil exports and banking sector—kickstarted in early November. In recent weeks, the central bank, which is among the institutions saying it made long-term plans to deal with the new sanctions regime, has intervened in the hard currency markets. That has helped Iran recoup towards two-fifths of the losses made by the IRR against the dollar in the year to date. The currency stands at around 60% weaker than it was at the start of 2018.
Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s economic commission, said the economy ministry planned to create its
29 IRAN Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com