Tehran: Police patrolled Tehran’s Grand Bazaar yesterday (Monday) as security forces struggled to restore normality after clashes with protesters angered by the rial’s collapse, which is disrupting business by driving up the cost of imports, witnesses said.
Traders from the bazaar, whose merchants supported Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, told Reuters by telephone that most shops remained closed.
“Police have dispersed the protesters. We are all angry with the economic situation. We cannot continue our businesses like this. But we are not against the regime,” said a merchant in the bazaar, who asked not to be identified.
Industries and trade minister Mohammad Shariatmadari slapped the import ban on 1,339 goods that could instead be produced within the country, Iran’s Financial Tribune newspaper reported, quoting an official document.
Prohibited imports include home appliances, textile products, footwear and leather products, as well as furniture, healthcare products and some machinery, the Tehran Times said.
The order suggests the US sanctions threat is pushing Tehran back towards running a “resistance economy” designed to conserve foreign exchange reserves and become as self-sufficient as possible in many products.
The rial is under heavy pressure from the US sanctions threat. It sank as low as 90,000 against the dollar in the unofficial market yesterday from 87,000 on Sunday and around 75,500 last Thursday. At the end of last year, it stood at 42,890.
Hundreds of merchants gathered in front of parliament in Tehran yesterday to protest at the rial’s fall, witnesses said. In the Grand Bazaar, hundreds staged a similar protest, videos posted on social media showed.
