Pulling money out of the country of their birth and buying foreign assets such as real estate have been a common practice of the rich in Iran for years.
However, now even those with a little more than enough money in their bank accounts are keen to exchange their Iranian rials for foreign assets—from foreign currency to real estate to investments in the so-called international cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to a report by the International Monetary Fund, Iranians broke a new record for getting money out of their country last year: $27 billion. The worst year in terms of capital outflow, before last year, was the fiscal 2010-11, when the country suffered from a negative capital account of $25 billion.
Figures on Iran’s capital account show nearly $135 billion flew out of the country between 2006-7 and 2016-17, the Persian daily Iran reported.
The Central Bank of Iran’s data show close to $16 billion and $30 billion flew out of Iran in the fiscal 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively.
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