Forbes: Iran’s rial is world’s “weakest” currency

The Iranian rial is the “weakest currency in the world,” based on its relative value against the US dollar, as “economic sanctions have put pressure on Iran’s currency, along with political unrest and high inflation,” Forbes said in a recent report.

According to the economic magazine, one rial buys just 0.000024 dollars  – or, put another way, 1 dollar equals 42,273 rials, IranWire reports.

However, the report used the official exchange rate for its ranking – not the rate in the open market, which currently stands at 488,000 rials for one dollar. 

According to data from the Bonbast website, the rial lost 51.6 per cent of its value against the dollar in the open market in just one year.

Forbes ranked the Vietnamese dong and the Laotian kip as the world’s second and third weakest currencies, respectively, followed by the Sierra Leonean leone, the Indonesian rupiah and the Lebanese pound.

Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman had the strongest currencies.