Iranian Rial Plummets Amid Central Bank Intervention

The Iranian rial has hit an all-time low as the country's central bank injects up to $2 billion into the market to stabilize the currency. The US dollar was selling at around 2.688 million rials on Saturday, a significant increase from 2.632 million rials just a day earlier. According to state television, state banks began selling dollars to support the currency, which has lost over half of its value in the past year.

With an inflation rate exceeding 70%, life for ordinary citizens is becoming increasingly difficult as they struggle to afford basic necessities and rent due to the US blockade on oil exports. Many Iranians are turning to safe havens such as dollars, other hard currencies, or gold to protect their savings.

Mehdi Darabi, an aide to the central bank's governor, attributed the decline of the rial partly to what he called 'false predictions' by US officials about the collapse of the Iranian economy. He described these claims as a tactic used by the enemy to manipulate the exchange rate and downplay the current situation.