77 MPs ask Ahmadinejad to explain Iran currency crisis
5 Nov 2012 6:06 AM IST
Iran's parliament on Sunday summoned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a grilling over his handling of last month's currency crisis which saw the rial plunge 40 per cent against the dollar, state media said.
A total of 77 deputies in the 290-seat conservative-dominated parliament submitted a petition requiring Ahmadinejad to explain the ‘government's procrastination in managing the forex market,’ official IRNA news agency said. According to the constitution, a petition demanding that the president come to the majlis, or parliament, to answer questions must be signed by a minimum of 74 deputies. The president now has one month to appear before the deputies with his replies.
The petition submitted on Sunday says that rial fell from 22,000 to 40,000 against the dollar in the space of 20 days last month, ‘due to Central Bank inaction ... which caused inflation along with economic slowdown, disrupting the activities of the economic players.’ The collapse of rial is being seen by economists as one of the consequences of banking and oil sanctions slapped on Iran by the US and the European Union for its refusal to give up its uranium enrichment programme.
Tehran is also under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its disputed nuclear drive, which world powers believe has a military dimension despite repeated denials by the Islamic republic.
A total of 77 deputies in the 290-seat conservative-dominated parliament submitted a petition requiring Ahmadinejad to explain the ‘government's procrastination in managing the forex market,’ official IRNA news agency said. According to the constitution, a petition demanding that the president come to the majlis, or parliament, to answer questions must be signed by a minimum of 74 deputies. The president now has one month to appear before the deputies with his replies.
The petition submitted on Sunday says that rial fell from 22,000 to 40,000 against the dollar in the space of 20 days last month, ‘due to Central Bank inaction ... which caused inflation along with economic slowdown, disrupting the activities of the economic players.’ The collapse of rial is being seen by economists as one of the consequences of banking and oil sanctions slapped on Iran by the US and the European Union for its refusal to give up its uranium enrichment programme.
Tehran is also under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its disputed nuclear drive, which world powers believe has a military dimension despite repeated denials by the Islamic republic.
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