Iran appoints new c.bank governor amid currency market turmoil
The Iranian government has appointed a new governor for the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in an apparent effort to contain rising prices in the country’s unofficial foreign currency market.
Mohammad Reza Farzin was named CBI governor by the Iranian Cabinet on Thursday, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.
Farzin has served as CEO of Bank Melli, Iran’s largest lender, for the past 16 months. He holds a PhD in economics from Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba'i University and has a history of serving in top government jobs in a former administration that left office in 2013.
He replaces Ali Salehabadi, CBI’s youngest-ever governor. The government has given no clear reason for Salehabadi’s resignation although reports over the past weeks have suggested that President Ebrahim Raeisi was dissatisfied with his performance in the job.
Salehabadi had been criticized in domestic economic circles for his failure to control rising hard currency prices.
The price of the US dollar rose to an all-time high of 430,000 Iranian rials on Thursday, up 10,000 rials from a day earlier.
Experts welcomed Farzin’s appointment as CBI governor and said it could help ease the crisis in the foreign exchange market.
“The change in CBI leadership is a good move. Appointing someone who has experience and academic education in the field of banking and finance helps solve the problems,” said Morteza Afghah, a University of Birmingham graduate and a professor of economics at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz.
Afghah said the new CBI governor could also engineer changes in CBI’s monetary policies to help the government contain rising inflation in Iran.
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