Iran is considering removing zeros from its national currency
Iran’s parliament’s economic committee approved a bill on Sunday to remove four zeros from the national currency, which has been steadily depreciating in recent years, particularly due to international sanctions, state media reported.
The council’s website, Ikana, quoted the head of the Economic Committee, Shamsuddin Hosseini, as saying, “Today’s meeting of the Economic Committee approved the name of the rial as the national currency, as well as the removal of four zeros”.
The Iranian Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin announced in May that the Iranian rial doesn’t have a positive image in the global economy.
According to the draft law, the new riyal will be equivalent to 10,000 current riyals and will be divided into 100 qirans, a unit equivalent to a cent, according to the same source.
The proposal was first proposed in 2019 before being withdrawn.
It must be put to a vote in the Council and approved by the Guardian Council, the body responsible for reviewing laws.
The US dollar exchange rate on the black market reached 925,000 riyals, by the weekend.
The spokesman for the Shura Council’s Economic Committee, Governor Mamkan, said on Monday that the government’s proposal aims to facilitate transactions and audits within state institutions.
To simplify transactions, Iranians have for years called their currency the Toman, subtracting zero from the rial’s value, which can be confusing for foreign visitors.
