Iran’s sudden decision on 9 April to unify the country’s two-tier exchange rate system and eliminate the parallel market in a desperate attempt to arrest the plunging Iranian rial has come under fire from the Majlis Research Center (MRC), the think tank at the Iranian parliament.

The MRC says that compelling exporters to sell their foreign exchange earnings to the banking system at the unified rate of $1=IR42,000 via the government’s Forex Management Integrated System (Nima) would cause a fall in exports. Sellers would rather sell them on the higher-priced black market. It adds that the government’s measures are insufficient and should have been bolstered with additional financial arrangements. (CONTINUED - 414 WORDS)