TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s currency, the rial, fell on Wednesday to an all-time low as former President Donald Trump was on the verge of clinching the U.S. presidency again.
The rial traded at 703,000 rials to the dollar.
In 2015, at the time of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, it was at 32,000 to $1. On July 30, the day that Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in and started his term, the rate was 584,000 to $1.
Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in 2018. sparking years of tensions between the countries that persist today.
The slide comes as Iran’s economy has struggled for years under crippling international sanctions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, which now enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels.
Pezeshkian, elected after a helicopter crash killed hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi in May, came to power on a promise to reach a deal to ease Western sanctions.
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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
