Iran's currency plummets to all-time low amid anti-regime protests, sanctions

Iran’s currency fell to a new record low on February 27, plummeting to 600,000 rials to the dollar for the first time in history as the country’s economy continues to be roiled by nationwide anti-government protests and international sanctions.

Iranians’ purchasing power has been decimated by inflation, which reached an annual rate of 53.4 per cent in January – up from 41.4 per cent two years according to the country’s statistics centre, Fox News reports.

The dire economic circumstances have wiped out the life savings of many and caused Iranians to form long lines at currency exchange offices in recent days in an effort to acquire increasingly scarce dollars.

In recent months, Iran’s government has embarked on a brutal crackdown against protesters who took to the streets after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s Islamic dress code.

The protests rapidly escalated into a call for Iran’s ruling Shiite clerics to be overthrown in one of the most significant internal challenges to their rule since they took power following the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Iran's security forces have sought to suppress the protests, killing hundreds and arresting thousands since the unrest began.

Iran’s economy has struggled in recent years following the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord that had lifted sanctions in exchange for strict limits on and surveillance of its nuclear program. At the time the deal was signed, the country’s currency traded at 32,000 rials to the dollar.