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TEHRAN - The Iranian rial has fallen nearly nine percent against the dollar on the black market in the past few weeks on high demand for hard currencies, dealers said on Monday.
Street dealers charged 6,100 rials for each dollar on Tehran's illegal but active black market, from some 5,600 rials about a month ago.
Traders and economists attributed the rial's slide to high forex demand from Iranians taking vacations abroad and those needing dollars to trade at a carpet exposition in Tehran last week and an upcoming commercial fair in the city. Deals at trade shows are often done in foreign currencies.
The Tehran daily Arya newspaper quoted an economist as saying the 8.9 percent fall was due to "unclear Central Bank policies and foreign events, particularly those in Afghanistan."
A dealer in Dubai, the commercial center of the United Arab Emirates which has extensive trade ties with Iran, said the dollar fetched about 6,100 rials there. "Trading opened at about 6,350 rials to the dollar but it has stood at about 6,100 rials since midday," he told Reuters.
The German mark was at 3,400 to 3,460 rials and the French franc fetched between 1,000 rials to 1,050.
The rial has also come under pressure from weak oil prices which have seriously cut government revenue. Iran relies on petroleum exports for about 80 percent of its hard cash income. The rial has slid gradually since the beginning of the year when it stood at about 4,800 to the dollar.
In 1995 Iran banned free market currency exchange, imposing a rate of 3,000 rials to the dollar to stop a free-fall of the rial after the United States announced sanctions against Iran. The rial had fallen to as low as 7,000 to the dollar.
The tough rules also led to a serious fall in the country's non-oil exports as exporters were reluctant to exchange their hard cash income at the official rates.
Mullahs' Speaker Warns The Demise of Mullahs' Rule
is Near, Radio Israel, August 29
A recent statement by the speaker of parliament, Nateq Nouri, has been widely criticized by Khatami's supporters.
Nateq Nouri expressed concern that Khatami would be Iran's Gorbachev and cause the demise of clerical rule.
Hojat-ol-Islam Nateq Nouri went into a detailed explanation of the demise of the Soviet Union, comparing it with Iran today: "When doubts about the Marxist-Leninism ideology among Soviet intellectuals and universities reached the people, the anti-government whispers heightened, and were compounded by the economic crises. When Gorbachev enacted peresteroika it primarily brought some freedom but then it all got out of hand and the Soviet Union broke apart. Consequently, today the Americans are the lone power in the arena."
Nateq Nouri clearly described Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader, as void of real power and charisma. He said: "God bless Khomeini who stood like a champion and if anybody said anything about supreme jurisprudence he would immediately punch them in the mouth. But today, the papers and magazines write everything against jurisprudence…"
More Nuclear Power for Mullahs, Reuter, August 29
TEHRAN - A new 200-megawatt (MW) power plant south of Tehran has been connected to Iran's power network, an official said in remarks published on Saturday.
The combined cycle plant in the city of Qom, 120 km (75 miles) from the capital, had cost $145 million plus 80 billion rials ($26.7 million) in local currency, the Iran Daily newspaper quoted the project's manager as saying.
The plant was the second unit at the Qom power station, where a first unit went on stream in 1993 with a capacity of 514 MW, the official said.
Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf was quoted by Iran Daily as saying that Iran had plans to increase its electricity output by 1,600 MW annually.
Earlier this week Iran brought online a 250-MW power plant in the northwestern town of Khoy.