Early in February 2018, the Euromoney Iran Conference was held in Paris with the aim of bringing together Iranian bankers and industrial leaders with their international counterparts to discuss and debate the key issues around the country’s economy. Participating in the event, Iranian Central Bank governor Valiollah Seif underlined the possibility of Iran’s full cooperation with the international community to implement standards set forth by the Financial Action Task Force. However, some parties are now calling for the countermeasures to be re-imposed given Iran’s financing some radical Islamist (terrorist, according to international norms) groups around the globe.
In the meantime, in the past weeks, Iranian markets have been suffering from a major and unexpected devaluation of the rial on the free currency market. Though there is a continued inflationary pressure on the rial, the Central Bank of Iran has tried to manage the value of the national currency. Beyond all economic reasons, there is no doubt that Iran’s free market rates are also motivated by increased domestic political tensions in Iran, as well as threats by US President Donald Trump to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Also, the arrest of 90 foreign exchange traders and the suspension of the activities of ten foreign exchange bureaus have not been of great help. At the end of the day, one of the main reasons for Iran’s economic difficulties is the military engagements of the country in the Middle East.
Source » thewire