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On May 4th, Iranian parliament voted to change the national currency from the “rial” to the “toman.”
The new law tasks Central Bank of Iran with recalculating foreign exchange ratio with ‘toman’ taking into consideration the currency reserve and the country’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund.
The law also articulates that ‘rial’ will remain credible alongside ‘toman’ for two years, during which the old coins and bills will be gradually collected and new ones will replace them.
As per the decision, four zeros will disappear from the value of the Iranian currency, in addition to the name change.
As a result of the decision, 10,000 rials become 1 toman. A euro is now officially worth 4.5 tomans, or 17 tomans on the free market, the agency said. The law must be ratified by the Guardian Council.
The rial, Iran’s currency since 1925, has recently lost more than 50 per cent of its worth, with inflation rising drastically as US sanctions, introduced in response to Iran’s nuclear, military and regional policy, and the economic consequences of the pandemic bite.
The toman was Iran’s currency until 1925 and the term itself remained in use in Iran because conversion was easy: 10 rials were known as a toman.
Iran hopes that the new measure has a positive psychological effect on the market.
Many Iranians have to pay more than a million rials for their weekly shopping.
The move is also necessary for the implementation of banking reform.
This is a direction result of the continuing “maximum pressure” campaign by Washington against Tehran.
The situation is heavily exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that more than 100,000 total cases have been recorded in Iran.
Currently the active cases are nearly 13,000, but the rapid spread over the last two months and the cost of treating people, enforcing emergency measures and so on has very obviously taken its toll on the country’s struggling economy.
Some of Tehran’s oil exports continue, facilitated by China, but generally the biggest contributor to its revenue has been impeded by the heavy sanctions regime enforced by Washington.
Calls by European countries, Russia and China for the easing of the sanctions in the face of the pandemic were entirely disregarded by Washington. Even more so, sanctions were introduced on officials and organizations during the pandemic.
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Toman was unnoficial currency until now too, with the difference that 1000 rials would equal 1 toman. Now is 10.000 rials for one toman….
Pre-1925: Qeran was the currency, 10,000 Q = 1 Tuman unofficially 1925-now: 10 Rials=1 Tuman unofficially Proposed: 10,000 Rials= 1 Tuman officially
Tuman is a strange currency. Based on situation it means anything between 1 and a billion: in grocery: he gave me a bubble gum instead of 500 toman (means 500 x one) In taxi, how much is it? – 3 toman (means 3,000 tuman) in shop: how much is this phone? – 5 toman (means 5 million tumans) How much did you buy your house? 2 toman (means 2 billion tumans)
Maybe it’s powers are because it’s not a Persian word, but a Turko-Mongolian one meaning 10,000. Using it for a few centuries it feels more appropriate to use other proposed names from thousands of years ago like Darik.
But. Removing 4 zeros without reducing the inflation is insane. We have examples like in Hungary, Germany and Zimbabwe. Turkey did it after they controlled their inflation and it worked more or less.
I hope the Guardian council stops this insanity and postpone it for a better time. Psychological effect my [fill in the blank].
Only a couple of months remained from this lazy and ineffective parliament term. In the last 3 weeks the MPs (of which, many will not enter the new parliament) proposed all kinds of insanity to compensate 4 years of sleep, taking selfies and generally not acting like an MP should.
When I was in Iran last year I exchanged about the same amount of money as 5 years earlier and got 10x as much rials.
1925-now: 10 Rials=1 Tuman unofficially
Christ this is so god damn confusing to foreigners. We’re not used to thinking tumans, sometimes prices are priced in rials, sometimes in tumans. Shopping in Iran is so damn confusing. Even though 1 in 4 buildings is a shop.you’re endlessly cruising from 1 shop to another in a different part of town, constantly looking to get the best discounts because you know this guy, or a friend of a friend of friend of a cousin knows this guy. Time is money seems to be a concept that is alien to Iranians when it comes to shopping. I still love you guys, though. And losing some zeros is never wrong.
Depends on what do you intend to buy and who is the shopper. Never ever ever go to shop clothing, cosmetics or god-forbid, carpets with an Iranian lady, EVER! They relentlessly go up and down the street, check every single shop , in each shop examine at least a dozen of different items, check the prices and when you think it’s close to get finished, they start the cycle again. Once is more than enough to drive any man crazy. And like you said, women prefer to go to the places that a distant relative or even a stranger suggested, doesn’t matter if it’s on the other side of the city. Funny is, they usually end up paying more than what they should, but they are happy anyway.
Beware of the invitations to go to Bazaar if your hostess proposes it, avoid like a plague, or get ready like you are going to a mountain hike as it’s going to be a loooong day of walking up and down an endless maze. You won’t buy anything useful but she is happy to check on things she wanted for a long time, without buying them, mind you.
With men it’s easier, just avoid going to buy the following with them: Anything car related, tools, electronics, ties, belts and wallet. Strangely shopping cloths is a quick process for men, usually in the 3rd shop Iranian men buy the most hideous shirts or shoes they can find.
In the meantime, just remember 1 toman= 10 rial and nobody uses Rials when they say the price. On tags it’s 50:50 just ask unless a shaky “T” is written in front of it. The shops and sellers will be happy to explain it to you and the argument finishes when they punch the price on a calculator and shout “This,… Rial!” and you’ll wonder why this ar$ehole said 1/10 of this price initially. Fortunately very few attempt to take advantage of foreigners.
It sounds like its pretty much the same with shopping with men or women in the West. The women take forever, the men tend to know what they want or settle on something sooner rather then later. Only worse. I was there for a wedding so I got to experience the whole shopping expedition process. Just buy clothes or shoes there, they tell me, it will be cheaper. Which it is, but not that much. And money is time. If I had bought everything in the West it would have cost me a little more, but I would have saved me a lot of shopping expeditions over there. I was in Shiraz if you wanted to know.
As for the toman thing, yeah, by now I know people keep talking tomans when they say the price, and I can recognize arabic letters so I can see if a T is written in front of the price tag. And calculators speak a universal language, but still it remains confusing as hell, as my brain is just not conditioned to think in an additional currency layer. The only time that ever worked was on my first visit to Iran, when the 10.000 note was still the highest, and my friend had jokingly baptized them a Khomeini. So we were always joking how many Khomeinis something was.
Goodness, you’ve had one of the worst experiences imaginable. Shopping for a wedding? Well, now you are a re-born and hardened with that ritual. After that (specially if it included jewellery) nothing under the blue sky can crush your soul! Generally if what you buy is foreign made, it will be cheaper to buy it in Europe. If it’s perfume, cosmetics some cloths and sports gear it’s considerably cheaper there. Oh, and cars are more than double here. Now every bank-note has his picture on, so confusion it is.
You know what? Getting married in Belgium was a lot cheaper. Netherlands may be the same, Idk but women there are not as high-maintenance as here.
Thanks Garga, your insights are always very helpful and appreciated!
Iran’s economy has stabilized as massive Chinese investment is coming, Iran is exporting the Pimpeovirus testing kits and other supplies even to Turkey and many EU countries. The Americunt dumbasses really fucked this one up big-time.
Yea and Iran is like the most civilized country in the region
Isreal is bae
yea so civilized they constantly kill and harass palestinians, get the hell outta here
Israel is the Turd of the ME, the World will eliminate their stolen lands and each and everyone in the next 50 years.
No, israel acts like a barbarian state.
Only barbarians annex their “neighbours” land.
HOW IS THEIR CURRENCY STABILIZING ????? IT JUST COLLAPSED !!! YOU OBVIOUSLY DONT CARE ABOUT THE IRANIAN PEOPLE !!!
Nor do you, i hope you choke on your crocodile tears.
You understand nothing of whats going on do you?
The Mullahs have destroyed Iran. All my Iranian friends hate what the dictatorship is doing to their country. I can’t but feel the people are longing to be free from the governments tyranny !!!
When I stayed at the hotel in Tehran (The Hilton ?), we had some Shia conference with all the Inmans, my mate said similar – but I was never sure if he meant it or tested me.
New account freeman?