Iran currency 'slides further'

Iran's currency slid between two and six percent in early trading on Tuesday, according to different valuations given by money changers in Tehran and an exchange tracking website, extending a dramatic loss of 17 percent the day before. The currency, the rial, was between 35,500 and 37,000 to the dollar, depending on the source. That was sharply lower than the 34,700 to 34,800 it reached at the end of trading on Monday. Compared to a year ago, the rial has lost more than 80 percent of its value. According to a real-time currency tracking website (www.livedata.ir), the rial was just over two percent weaker at 35,500 to the dollar. But traders in Tehran's money-changing district said they were selling one dollar for 37,000 rials -- a six percent decline over Monday's close. Datalive.ir, a website that tracks the rial's rate, said the Iranian currency had weakened by 3.5 percent Specialised websites that normally track the rial's exchange rate in real time did not update from Monday's rate. Almost all of Iran's main media outlets made no mention of Monday's startling slide or Tuesday's continued plunge. The Mehr news agency, which had been tracking the currency's fall, reported before trading opened on Tuesday that the rial stood around 35,000 to the dollar, but did not update that figure.