Iran’s National Currency Strengthening Despite US Sanctions

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati announced that his country’s national currency the rial has regained over 40 percent of its value, to Washington’s disappointment as the US is trying to damage Tehran’s economy with unilateral sanctions.

“Inflation has stabilized and the rial has recovered, while the economy has recorded growth over the last 12 months despite the impact of sanctions and the threat of war,” Hemmati said on Saturday.

Hemmati noted that "through the guidelines and support of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the president, the resistance of the nation as well as the prudence of the Central Bank", Iran managed to restore stability to the market.

The CBI governor said Iran’s currency regained its value despite the most complicated and unprecedented sanctions and monetary restrictions launched by the US and its regional allies against Tehran.

“Iran’s enemies had sought a currency collapse and economic disintegration to make chaos in the country. The rial, however, has rebounded, inflation has been reined in, and the economic growth is imminent,” Hemmati said.

Washington’s unilateral sanctions against Tehran began in November 2018, five months after US President Donald Trump withdrew from an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Claiming that the bans were working properly, Trump tightened them in May, only to see that Iran was finding new solutions to recoup the losses.

Last month, Deputy Head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) Ali Asqar Masaheb announced that Iran will undertake new measures to further strengthen its non-oil exports with a new bill to be tabled at the Iranian Parliament.

Iranian officials started planning for policies to counter the US possible sanctions a year before Donald Trump entered into office in early 2017. The policies are now proving effective as economic indexes are indicating inefficacy of the US pressures.

Earlier in July, Iranian Industry Minister Reza Rahmani said that despite US efforts to cripple Tehran’s economy, year-on-year comparison shows that the country’s domestic production has increased in the first quarter of the local calendar year (March 21-June 21).