Iran Crisis: 'We Hardly Make Ends Meet. I Wonder How Poor Families Survive'

THE GUARDIAN: Parvin, a housewife in Tehran, explains how the currency crisis is affecting ordinary Iranians

In Iran, it was always hoped that the man who asks for your daughter's hand would be an engineer or a doctor. But now, with the crisis over the national currency, one joke says: "We had happily assumed that our daughter had married a foreign exchange dealer, but to our dismay it turned out that he was faking and was merely an engineer."

My country's currency, the rial, is losing its value rapidly and we feel its impact in the prices of staple goods, household products and almost everything else. We are a middle-class family and can hardly make ends meet. I wonder how poor families survive.

Prices are going up every day but our income remains static. The money in our pocket comes from my husband who works in a public office. In comparison to last year, his salary has risen very little whereas our daily needs, such as milk, cheese, chicken, are going up disproportionately. » | guardian.co.uk | Friday, October 05, 2012

Parvin is a pseudonym

[Australian] Dollar Nosedives As Europe Worries Bite
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: The Australian dollar plunged more than 2.5 US cents in less than 18 hours, compounding a series of significant falls over the past days that have seen the value of the currency hit its lowest level since last September against its US counterpart - down more than 8 per cent since the start of the month. >>> Gabrielle Costa | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pound Slumps to Nine-month Low Over Fears of a Hung Parliament
MAIL ONLINE: The pound slumped to a nine-month low against the dollar today as fears over a hung Parliament sparked a sterling sell-off.

The currency fell sharply to as low as 1.478 against the dollar, as well as dropping below 1.10 against the euro.

Pressure on the pound comes as the Conservative lead against Labour in the polls narrows - threatening an indecisive General Election result at the same time markets want firm action to sort out the UK's dire public finances.

Mark O'Sullivan, director of dealing at foreign exchange firm Currencies Direct, said: 'Until the political situation in the UK becomes clearer, sterling will remain very, very vulnerable.'

The sudden drop from 1.52 to below 1.48 is the pound's biggest one-day fall since January last year, according to Chris Turner, head of FX Strategy at ING Commercial Banking.

He warned: 'While UK policymakers may have quietly welcomed the pound's recent weakness, they will not appreciate the kind of fast markets that can see a "sell UK" mentality developing.'

Sterling has lost nearly 10 cents against the dollar in little more than a week - hitting holidaymakers in the pocket, increasing pressure on petrol pump prices and adding to import costs for businesses. Read on and comment >>> | Monday, March 01, 2010

Gulf Petro-powers to Launch Currency in Latest Threat to Dollar Hegemony
THE TELEGRAPH: The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro, hoping to blaze a trail towards a pan-Arab monetary union swelling to the ancient borders of the Ummayad Caliphate.

“The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect,” said Kuwait’s finance minister, Mustafa al-Shamali, speaking at a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait.

The move will give the hyper-rich club of oil exporters a petro-currency of their own, greatly increasing their influence in the global exchange and capital markets and potentially displacing the US dollar as the pricing currency for oil contracts. Between them they amount to regional superpower with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (£739bn), some 40pc of the world’s proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are to launch the first phase next year, creating a Gulf Monetary Council that will evolve quickly into a full-fledged central bank.

The Emirates are staying out for now – irked that the bank will be located in Riyadh at the insistence of Saudi King Abdullah rather than in Abu Dhabi. They are expected join later, along with Oman.

The Gulf states remain divided over the wisdom of anchoring their economies to the US dollar. The Gulf currency – dubbed “Gulfo” – is likely to track a global exchange basket and may ultimately float as a regional reserve currency in its own right. “The US dollar has failed. We need to delink,” said Nahed Taher, chief executive of Bahrain’s Gulf One Investment Bank.

The project is inspired by Europe’s monetary union, seen as a huge success in the Arab world. But there are concerns that the region is trying to run before it can walk. >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Tuesday, December 2009

Muslims Push for a Caliphate: Its Currency
CALIPHATE ONLINE: The Caliphate’s currency is based on the gold and silver standards where the coins and notes in circulation are 100% backed by gold and silver. Islam did not leave any question unanswered, especially questions concerning the complexities of economic life. The Shari’ah has therefore defined the Islamic currency as gold dinars and silver dirhams along with their corresponding weights in gold or silver. The Shari’ah rules related to money such as zakat, blood money (diyah) and hoarding all specify values in gold and silver.

Unlike the paper standard operating in the world today, the Bait ul-Mal (State Treasury) is not allowed to print any money unless it has the corresponding amounts of gold and silver in its reserves. This means the persistent inflation found in the world today would not exist in the Caliphate as the currency always keeps its value. Currency of the Caliphate >>> | July 17, 2008

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