Dollar Reaches 20,000 Rials (Again)
The government’s Statistics Center of Iran (SCI) in a report to the country’s Supreme Council for Labor published this week has put the current rate of inflation in the country at 26.5 percent. Using a basket of 359 goods, the SCI has measured price increases for the 12 months period ending in the last day of Bahman 1390 (22 February 2012). The Majlis Research Center, the parliament’s statistics center, has also estimated an inflation rate of over 30 percent for the current Iranian calendar year that ends on Tuesday 20 March.
Meanwhile, the rial-dollar exchange rate has hit 20,000 rials per dollar in open exchange markets this week. The development is a major setback for the government’s efforts to maintain a unitary exchange rate of 12,260 rials per dollar. The official rate was set in January, coupled with strong interventions by the country’s central bank, when dollar had passed the 20,000 mark in open markets.
