Iran is ready to switch its currency, coming back to toman

The administration of President Hassan Rouhani in a cabinet meeting on Sunday approved a bill to switch Iran's national currency from rial to toman, an official said here on Monday. The secretary of the Cabinet Mohsen Haji Mirzaei said the issue had been scrutinized in the government's economic commission during the past six months. He added the move aims to facilitate the transactions by the public.  The move is aimed at improving the performance of banking sector, he added.

Iranian officials previously had announced that switching to toman would facilitate public transactions. In the meantime, some observers had suggested that the move could boost the value of the country’s national currency against the US dollar.

Haji Mirzaei added that one toman would be worth 10 rials and switching to the toman means that a zero would be removed from price figures.

The bill to become a law needs to be approved by parliament and the country’s constitutional watchdog body of the Guardian Council.