December 12, 2014
Unlike the price of oil, the rial has not continued sinking after a sharp but brief slump right after OPEC declined to cut output last month.
From late September until the day before OPEC’s latest meeting the rial held steady at between 32,200 to 32,600 to the dollar. But it slumped to 35,300 three days after the OPEC meeting.
In the week since then, the currency has recovered, though it remains 1,000 to 2,000 rials below the rate of the past few months. In the last week, the price has ranged from 33,800 to 34,400 to the dollar.
There has also been much anguish over the Tehran Stock Exchange, which is not doing well at all. But as the accompanying chart shows, the stock exchange problems date back to January and have not been exacerbated in the recent months of fright over oil prices.
The TEPIX index for the stock market reached a high of 89,501 last January 5. It fell to 71,662 in June just before the oil price began its slide. And the index stood at 71,382 as of this Tuesday, not markedly different from June, but 20 percent below its record high of January.
