Azerbaijan, Baku, July 18/Trend M. Moezzi
Four zeros will be lopped off Iran's official currency in 20 months, giving the country a new monetary unit.
The Central Bank of Iran is the proponent for this change although economic experts say it will have no effect on controlling the inflation rate, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reports.
The Central Bank even set up a website to seek out suggestions for a new currency name and a bill has been readied for the president to send to the Majlis (parliament).
When Central Bank officials gave details of the bill in late May, they said they'd need at least 18 months between the bill's approval and its implementation. They were contradicted by Mahmoud Bahmani, the Central Bank's chief who said if the measure is passed by September, it will go into effect in March 2013 (Iran's solar year begins on March 20).
But the president of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce (ICCIM), Mohammad Nahavandian, says dropping zeros is not the real issue in Iran's economy and it won't solve real problems like inflation.
Pedram Soltani, Masood Daneshmand and Mohammad Mehdi Rasekh, all members and officers at the Chamber of Commerce, agree with that assessment. They say dropping zeros from Iran's currency can only come after real changes like reducing the country's dependence on oil revenues and the inflation rate and that changing the currency in a weak economy will have a psychological effect that will be inflationary.