Tehran, October 5, 2025 (Agencies): Iran’s parliament has approved a long-awaited plan to remove four zeros from the national currency, the rial, in a move aimed at simplifying transactions and addressing the effects of years of economic sanctions and inflation.
Lawmakers passed the bill on Sunday, two months after a parliamentary commission revived the stalled proposal, according to the legislature’s official website. Under the plan, 10,000 current rials will be replaced by one new rial. Both versions of the currency will circulate simultaneously for up to three years, while the Central Bank of Iran has been given two years to oversee the transition.
The redenomination comes as the rial has hit repeated record lows on the black market, trading around 1,115,000 to the US dollar on Sunday, compared with approximately 920,000 in early August when the plan was revived. The currency’s sharp depreciation follows the reimposition of United Nations sanctions, triggered last month by Britain, France, and Germany through the “snapback” mechanism in response to Iran’s non-compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
Originally proposed in 2019, the plan was shelved amid political and economic turbulence. For it to take effect, the bill still requires approval from the Guardian Council and the signature of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In daily transactions, Iranians commonly drop a zero from the rial and use the resulting figure, known as the toman. The redenomination aims to bring official currency practices closer to the way people already conduct everyday business, while authorities hope it will also help improve accounting, reduce complexity in financial transactions, and restore some public confidence in the currency.