Iranian traders, shopkeepers protest currency's record fall
Mounting inflation and market anxiety have pushed Tehran’s merchants to shut shops and rally, as the rial’s collapse deepens pressure on household finances and fuels broader economic unrest.
Iranian traders and shopkeepers have staged a second day of protests after the country’s currency plummeted to a new record low against the US dollar.
Videos on social media showed on Monday that hundreds were taking part in rallies in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in the Shush neighbourhood near Tehran's main Grand Bazaar, which played a crucial role in the 1979 Revolution.
Witnesses said that traders shut their shops and asked others to do the same.
The semiofficial ILNA news agency said many businesses and merchants stopped trading even though some kept their shops open.
There were no reports of police raids, though security was tight at the protests, according to witnesses.
On Sunday, protest gatherings were limited to two major mobile markets in downtown Tehran, where the demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.
Iran's rial on Sunday plunged to 1.42 million to the dollar. On Monday, it traded at 1.38 million rials to the dollar.
The rapid depreciation is compounding inflationary pressure, pushing up prices of food and other daily necessities and further straining household budgets, a trend that could worsen with a gasoline price change introduced in recent days.
More concern
According to the state statistics centre, the inflation rate in December rose to 42.2 percent from the same period last year, and is 1.8 percent higher than in November.
Foodstuff prices rose 72 percent and health and medical items were up 50 percent from December last year, according to the statistics centre. Many critics see the rate as a sign of an approaching hyperinflation.
Reports in official Iranian media said that the government plans to increase taxes in the Iranian new year, which begins March 21, have caused more concern.
Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear programme.
That deal unravelled after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
There is also uncertainty over the risk of renewed conflict following June’s 12-day war involving Iran and Israel. Many Iranians also fear the possibility of a broader confrontation that could draw in the United States, adding to market anxiety.
In September, the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through what diplomats described as the “snapback” mechanism. Those measures once again froze Iranian assets abroad, halted arms transactions with Tehran and imposed penalties tied to Iran’s ballistic missile programme.