Iranian riot police clash with demonstrators in Tehran over Rial collapse

Iranian riot police clashed with demonstrators in Tehran over Rial collapse. This after Iranian police launched a campaign on Wednesday to arrest illegal money changers in Iran, in an attempt to halt the recent dramatic slide in the value of Iran’s currency which has been said to be a result of the economic sanctions.      

The crackdown prompted official exchange bureaus to shut their doors, a licensed money changer in Tehran’s Ferdowsi neighborhood told AFP.   

The Iranian rial plunged more than 7 percent in open-market trade on Monday to a record low against the U.S. dollar, traders and currency-tracking websites said, meaning the currency has lost about a quarter of its value in the past week.          

The rial traded at 32,250 per dollar on Monday, compared to about 29,720 on Sunday, currency-tracking website Mazanex said; an Iranian foreign exchange trader in Dubai confirmed the drop.

The currency was trading at 24,600 last Monday, according to currency-tracking site Mesghal.           

The freefall suggests Western economic sanctions against Iran, imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, are doing increasingly severe damage to the economy and that the country's reserves of hard currency may be running dangerously low.  


REUTERS/LBCI