Iran scrambles to ease inflation as rial's value plummets

Iran’s inflation crisis showed no sign of ending on Sunday as the dollar sold on the unofficial market for 601,500 rials, up from 540,000 on Friday.

On Monday morning, Iran's state-linked Press TV said the rate had dropped to 550,000 against the dollar after central bank intervention, involving “a new foreign exchange centre which helped satiate demand for hard currencies.”

But the overall picture is gloomy, with the rial having lost 50 per cent of its value since nationwide protests in mid-September, which led to strikes in the energy sector and the country's steel industry, as well as rising international isolation.

Protests initially flared up in Kurdish-majority areas after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who died in police custody after being detained for wearing her hijab “inappropriately”. But demonstrations soon spread to Tehran and Sunni majority parts of the south, uniting a broad spectrum of secular opposition groups and minorities.

Iran looks for options as the rial tanks and a foreign currency crunch bites

Western sanctions remain in place after Iran raised its enrichment of uranium to levels that could allow it to create a nuclear bomb. Europe and North America have also imposed new sanctions on the regime following the killing of hundreds of protesters and the jailing of tens of thousands in the recent unrest.

Iran has also faced fresh sanctions for supplying one-way attack drones, also known as Kamikaze drones, to Russian forces in Ukraine. Europe and the US have spent nearly $130 billion on assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion a year ago, and have reacted angrily to Iran’s growing military partnership with Russia.

Iranian authorities have blamed the currency's fall on “the enemies' plot” to destabilise the country, repeating a common government line that the economy is being undermined by foreign saboteurs.

Faced with the prospect of further economic hardship, Iranians have been turning to dollars and other hard currencies, or gold, to protect their savings amid high prices and inflation above 53 per cent.

Profile

Name: Carzaty

Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar

Launched: 2017

Employees: 22

Based: Dubai and Muscat

Sector: Automobile retail

Funding to date: $5.5 million

Match info

Manchester City 3 (Jesus 22', 50', Sterling 69')
Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 65')

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES

All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated

Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid

Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
Anderlecht v Celtic
Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Juventus v Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon v Barcelona

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ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.

Electric scooters: some rules to remember

Riders must be 14-years-old or over
Wear a protective helmet
Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
Do not drive outside designated lanes

UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food

Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”