Tehran, September 13: A plan to slash three zeros off Iran’s national currency, rial, has been finalized, says the head of the country’s Central Bank.
“The special committee that was formed to investigate the consequences of omitting three zeroes from the country’s national currency has come to a conclusion in this regard and evaluates the idea as helpful,” Iran’s Head of the Central Bank , Mahmoud Bahmani, was quoted as saying by ISNA on Sunday.
“However, considering the current (economic) situation, we (the committee) decided the plan be implemented with delay,” Bahmani said, adding that the timing of the implementation of the plan should be studied carefully.
The CBI head said the plan had been studied before and economic experts as well as previous governors of the Central Bank more or less agreed to slash some zeroes off the national currency.
The Central Bank of Iran has been working on slashing zeroes off the national currency to revive the country’s currency value.
The decision is made in line with Iran’s Central Bank’s plan to transform the banking system of the country.
Earlier in September 2008, an official at the Central Bank of Iran said the CBI plans to slash four zeros off the country’s national currency and rename it to toman.
The rial has been used as Iran’s official national currency since 1932. However, in recent years the term ‘toman’ has replaced the rial in daily practice as an unofficial unit. A toman, in its current form, is worth 10 rials.
—–Agencies