Iran’s parliament has dismissed Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati over economic mismanagement and the near-collapse of the national currency, the Iranian rial, according to a Reuters report citing the state news agency.
In a parliamentary vote on Sunday, 182 members voted against Hemmati, while 89 supported him. Hemmati, who was appointed finance minister seven months ago by President Masoud Pezeshkian, faced criticism for the deteriorating state of the economy.
The Iranian rial has become one of the world’s weakest currencies due to years of U.S. and Western sanctions. Under Hemmati’s tenure, the rial’s value plummeted by nearly 50%. When he took office, one U.S. dollar was worth 595,500 rials, but it has since dropped to 927,000 rials.
The sharp decline in the currency’s value has led to severe inflation in the past year. During the parliamentary vote, several members criticized Hemmati for failing to control the prices of essential goods and services, including food, medicine, and housing.
Hemmati has consistently argued that without relief from U.S. sanctions and removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, Iran’s economy could not recover. However, opposition lawmakers believed he should have focused on making the sanctions and blacklist ineffective rather than relying on their removal.
Since 2017, Iran’s lower and middle classes have been under intense pressure due to persistent inflation. The fragile and unstable economy remains the biggest challenge for the ruling Islamist government.