Iranian Currency Lost more than 90% of its Value over a Decade

The Economist has published a chart showing that in February, Iran’s currency had lost 94 percent of its value against the US dollar over the past decade.

The rial plummeted to an all-time low of around 580,000 to the dollar that month, leaving it 55 percent weaker than a year before, the British weekly newspaper said in an Instagram post titled “Iran’s economy is in a miserable state.”

The Islamic Republic’s increasing isolation, a worsening economic situation triggered by years of sanctions and political instability sparked by ongoing nationwide protests has led to the free fall of the rial.

Partly owing to the weakness of the national currency, inflation has hovered at about 50 percent for the past year, and Iranians have been scrambling to convert their savings into hard currencies or gold.

The Economist noted that the poor state of the Iranian economy has “exacerbated” the anti-government protests that erupted across Iran in September 2022 following the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody.

⁠Under the 2015 nuclear deal, most international economic sanctions against Iran were scrapped in exchange for limits to the country’s nuclear program.

But former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to resume nuclear activities prohibited by the nuclear pact.