what is the iranian rial irr 
irr is the currency abbreviation or fx symbol for the iranian rial iran s official currency the rial named after the spanish real first appeared in 1798 and is issued and managed by the central bank of the islamic republic of iran 1understanding the iranian rial irr one iranian rial is made up of 100 dinars but dinars are of no practical use because they are worth so little locally the irr uses the arabic symbol 3 as of december 2023 one u s dollar is worth roughly 42 023 irr 4while the rial was introduced in 1798 a currency called the qiran was used from 1825 to 1932 the rial was reintroduced in 1932 its value plummeted following the 1979 islamic revolution 1iran is an influential member of opec with a substantial percentage of the government s budget funded from the sale of oil 5 banknotes of its currency are issued in denominations of 100 200 500 1 000 2 000 5 000 10 000 20 000 50 000 and 100 000 rials while coins circulate in denominations of 50 100 250 500 1 000 2 000 and 5 000 rials 67a stable exchange rate typically helps a country prevent capital flight or investment capital from fleeing the country in search of more stable returns the irr is not pegged to the u s dollar or any currency meaning it s a free floating exchange rate however iran s central bank implements currency controls to keep the exchange rate stable 8 iran may be preparing regulations for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies according to reports 910the iranian rial irr convertibilitysince the early 2000s the irr exchange rate has fluctuated between about 1 750 irr to one u s dollar usd to as high as 44 070 irr to one u s dollar 2the rial however is not easily exchanged for u s dollars relations between the two nations are frosty with the u s applying decades long economic sanctions and trade restrictions against the islamic republic of iran mainly as a way to punish the country for its nuclear ambitions and history of state sponsorship of terror groups 11price controls subsidies and other rigid government policies also weigh down the economy and corruption is widespread this often makes the irr a non convertible inconvertible currency which is any nation s legal tender that is not freely traded on the global foreign exchange market 12the gdp of iran in 2023 which is expected to grow to 386 22 billion in 2024 1314for offshore investors seeking to engage in trade with nations such as iran that have non convertible currencies they must do so through the use of a financial instrument known as a non deliverable forward ndf an ndf has no physical exchange in the local currency rather the net of the cash flows is settled in a convertible currency usually the u s dollar which gets around the non convertibility of the domestic currency ndfs are cash settled and usually structured as short term forward currency contracts 15the iranian rial vs tomanalthough the iranian rial is the official currency of iran citizens of the country also use the iranian toman one toman is equal to 10 rials in 2020 there was a discussion of replacing the rial with the toman as the official currency of iran due to inflation causing the rial to lose value against the dollar one toman would be worth 10 000 rials in effect iran would be cutting zeros off of its currency the country s parliament actually passed measures to replace the rial with the toman however as of the end of 2023 the rial still remains the country s official currency 1617