Ten days prior to that, Bahmani said the shift would take “one to two years.” And five days before that, he said he would present a full proposal for making the currency change to the cabinet “within the next six months.”
So, in the space of less than a month, the timing for the currency shift has gone from less than six months, to between 12 and 24 months, to more than 24 months.
Bahmani gave no explanation for the constantly changing timetable.
He did seem to stick with the intention to drop four zeros from the rial, converting 10,000 rials into one rial. He announced the four-zero drop earlier this month—changing a three-zero drop that he announced in September 2009 after what he described as a long study by the Central Bank.
The shifting of implementation deadlines and the number of zeros to be dropped telegraphs considerable confusion within the Central Bank on what is really a rather minor policy issue with no impact on monetary policy. It begs the question of whether there is equal confusion on more important matters that could impact the economic health of the state.
