Official-to-Market Exchange Rate Gap Reaches 34x

The gap between Iran's official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar and the open market rate of approximately 1,420,000 rials reaches a factor of 34x, the largest divergence in the country's history. The dual-rate system, originally designed to subsidize essential imports, has become a source of massive corruption and arbitrage. Businesses with access to the official rate profit enormously by reselling dollars, while ordinary Iranians and small importers face the full brunt of market rates.