By Euronews Persian
Published on 02/09/2026 – 14:37 GMT+2
The US dollar surged past the 2.1 million Iranian rial threshold on Tehran’s free market on Wednesday, marking a historic low for the national currency. The rial has lost approximately 60% of its value against the US dollar since the beginning of the Iranian calendar year in March, when the exchange rate stood at roughly 1.35 million rials.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The currency’s downward spiral has intensified since July, when the United States reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports after the collapse of a brief ceasefire.
The euro reached an unprecedented 2.55 million rials, while the British pound climbed to 2,976,000 rials.
The UAE dirham, which serves as a key benchmark for regional rial trading, hit 600,000 rials for the first time.
Meanwhile, the price of one gram of 18-carat gold surpassed 225.7 million rials, and the Imami gold coin—a standard unit of value in Iran—changed hands at 2.26 billion rials.
Iran operates under a dual exchange rate system. The official rate, established by the Central Bank and utilized for state transactions and subsidized imports of essential goods, remains significantly stronger than the free market rate accessible to ordinary citizens and local businesses.
The disparity between the two rates has widened dramatically since the onset of the conflict, with the free market exchange rate now more than double the official rate.
The rial has been in freefall since the US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28th initiated the current conflict, now in its seventh month. The currency’s decline has accelerated as Washington intensified its economic pressure campaign.
The US Treasury has severed Iran’s access to regional banks, cutting off a primary channel for the Islamic Republic to access foreign currency and clear import payments.
The naval blockade of Iranian ports has further exacerbated the crisis by restricting trade routes and curtailing Iran’s oil export revenues.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, stated that the bank was prepared to inject $2 billion into the foreign exchange market to stabilize the rial. He attributed the recent currency slide primarily to psychological factors rather than fundamental economic conditions.
“The dust created in the foreign exchange market will settle, and the recent increase in exchange rates is driven more by psychological factors than by real economic factors,” he said.
Hemmati acknowledged that high inflation has placed a heavy burden on households.
“Although inflation and rising prices have placed heavy pressure on people’s livelihoods and daily lives, and these difficulties are tangible, the Central Bank has been able to control the accelerating pace of inflation by using monetary, supervisory and prudential tools,” he said.
He refuted US claims that Tehran lacks access to financial reserves.
“These claims are completely baseless. The reserves have not been frozen, and the Central Bank has access to stable resources as well as multiple oil and non-oil revenues,” he asserted, claiming that over $18 billion in foreign currency has been allocated for the imports of essential goods, medicines, animal feed, and raw materials since March. He provided no further documentation to substantiate this figure.
The rial’s collapse is directly driving up consumer prices. Iran was already grappling with high inflation before the war, and the currency’s further depreciation has increased the cost of all imported goods, raw materials, and energy inputs.
Iranians holding savings in rials have seen their purchasing power cut in half in less than six months. Gold and hard currency have emerged as the primary stores of value for those able to access them.
Iran’s official currency is the rial, though everyday transactions are commonly conducted in tomans—a colloquial unit equal to 10 rials. The toman is so deeply ingrained in daily life that shops, restaurants, and property listings almost exclusively quote prices in tomans.
At Wednesday’s free-market rate, the US dollar traded at approximately 220,000 tomans. The government announced plans in 2020 to officially replace the rial with the toman and remove four zeros from the currency, a redenomination that remains incomplete.
