Iranians trying in vain to buy dollars, on 10 April 2018 in Tehran (Photo ATTA KENARE. AFP)
“I’ve done all the offices of exchange, there is no way to find dollars.” As Tahmoures Faravahar, many inhabitants of Tehran have rushed among the traders in the hope of finding green tickets at an affordable price. But they made the white cabbage and many have expressed their anger, a few hours after the introduction of a fixed exchange rate between the dollar and the iranian rial.
The government has decreed this fixed exchange rate to stem the fall of the national currency, which has lost more than 30% of its value against the greenback in six months.
The fall is fed by a speculation based on the fear of a collapse even more marked in the national currency if the american president Donald Trump is running his threat to withdraw in may the United States of the international agreement on the iranian nuclear issue.
This agreement, concluded in 2015, is intended to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic weapon. Donald Trump has never stopped criticizing it, even if the Agency international atomic energy agency (IAEA) believes Tehran “meets its commitments”. A Us withdrawal would lead to the re-imposition of certain economic sanctions.
Since Tuesday, Iran no longer allows that the exchange rate of 1 dollar 42,000 rials in iran. The day before, he still had to pay up to 60,000 rials on the open market to acquire a dollar.
Hoping to buy greenbacks at the new rate, hundreds of people flocked in Ferdowsi street in central Tehran, which has dozens of banks and exchange offices.
But on the fronts, they do often have found that the following panel: “We do not have dollars to sell.”
“I had come to buy dollars for my son who lives abroad,” explains Tahmoures Faravahar, a retired 71-year-old who had to leave empty-handed.
– “Everything is at the lowest” –
“People don’t have hope on the political and economic situation of the country. They are confused and just want to secure their assets by obtaining dollars” against the rial, said a dealer on condition of anonymity.
A currency exchange has indicated that they have not received dollars from the central Bank and do not know when she would deliver them.
“The new exchange rate is correct. What was happening these last few days was not normal,” said one employee on condition of anonymity, in reference to the speculation that causes a fall in the rate of the national currency.
To another dealer in street, people have tried to make money by buying dollars and then selling the more expensive ones.
“Everything is at the lowest on the market, except the dollar. Real estate is at a low, trade is at a low, people need an income, and for them it was a good idea to buy and then resell the dollars to make money”, he explains.
According to him, these people will find a way around the new official exchange rate that is not in their favour, even if the vice-president of iran Eshagh Jahangiri has put severely warned against such practices.
“We do not recognize any other exchange rate, and from [Tuesday], we will consider as contraband any other rate of exchange on the market”, has he hammered after an emergency meeting of the government.
Comparing any attempt to obtain or sell dollars at a different rate to the “drug trafficking”, he added that “the justice and the security forces will” of potential violations.
A man of forty years trying to sell dollars to the sly on the street, Ferdowsi entrust not find buyers, unlike usual.
Another rare phenomenon, the journalists present in Ferdowsi street to cover the futile quest of the people for the greenback have not been approached, as it is often done, by the security forces for testing, or to stop filming.
A reporter expressed surprise: “The police is so present and nobody asks us anything.”
