0550 GMT: We begin this morning with a snapshot of life in Iran's captial from "A Correspondent" for Tehran Bureau. His/her observations from will be posted in a separate feature later this morning, but for now we note this telling extract:
Business that was being conducted through postdated checks is no longer happening. Put cash on the table; otherwise, no deal. People I owe money to have started court proceedings, and their phone calls are getting uglier by the day. I was surprised to get a phone call from the accounting department of a hospital I owed money to, as I thought the last place there would be financial problems would be a hospital, but it is a private hospital and has hundreds of personnel. The caller was hysterical and screaming at me to pay up or else.
What has got people upset...is the feeling that their assets have lost half their value, as a result of the rial losing its value against the dollar. One dentist who I know sold an apartment at half its value in order to get the money out to his relatives, but then he found out that, instead of paying 200 rials for each dollar to make the transfer, he had to pay 1,000 rials, and on top of this he is running out of imported [dental] materials and is considering closing down. If the most minor military confrontation with the outside world takes place, it will make it impossible to sell property and that will be when the economy will be shaken hard, whereas at the moment those with money are snapping up bargains and even people with money outside of Iran are buying as they are getting huge discounts.
Posted via email from lissping
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.