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Iranian businessmen and shopkeepers staged protests for a second day on Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the U.S. dollar.
Videos on social media showed hundreds of people attending a rally on Saadi Street in the city centre. Tehran and the Shush neighborhood near Tehran’s main Grand Bazaar, which played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the monarchy and brought islamist Power on.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders closed their shops and asked others to do the same. The semi-official ILNA news agency said many businesses and merchants had stopped trading, although some kept their shops open.
Although security was tight at the protest, there were no reports of police raids, according to witnesses.
On Sunday, protest rallies were limited to two main mobile markets in central Tehran, where demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.
The Iranian rial’s exchange rate plummeted to 1.42 million rials against the U.S. dollar on Sunday. On Monday, the rial exchange rate was 1.38 million rials against the dollar.
Rapid depreciation has added to inflationary pressures, pushing up the price of food and other daily necessities and further straining household budgets, a trend that could be exacerbated by changes to gasoline prices introduced in recent days.
According to the National Statistics Center, the inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same period last year, 1.8 percentage points higher than in November. According to the statistics center, food prices have increased by 72% compared with December last year, and health and medical supplies have increased by 50%. Many critics see this ratio as a sign of coming hyperinflation.
Iranian state media reported that the government planned to increase taxes during the Iranian New Year period, which begins on March 21, causing further concerns.
Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar when the 2015 nuclear deal was signed, which lifted international sanctions in exchange for tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program. The agreement fell apart after the election of U.S. President Donald Trump The United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018. There is also uncertainty about the risk of a renewed conflict after a 12-day war involving Iran and Iran in June. Israel. Many Iranians are also worried about the possibility of a broader confrontation that could involve the United States, adding to market anxiety.
September, United Nations Reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through what diplomats call a “snapback” mechanism. The measures again froze Iran’s assets abroad, halted arms deals with Tehran and imposed penalties on Iran’s ballistic missile program.