Iran launches forex center to support sagging rial

"With the distribution of currency in this center, the exchange rate in the market will go down, because some of the demand (for dollars) will be met in this center and the pressure of demand will be removed," Bahmani was quoted as saying.

The dollar sold for 24,040 rials at the center on Monday, the Iranian Students' News Agency said, compared to about 24,600 on the open market at around the same time, according to currency-tracking website Mesghal.

The foreign exchange center is the latest in a series of plans floated by the government in the last three months to address a burgeoning currency crisis, for which legislative foes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have blamed his administration.

The government maintains an official "reference" rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar, but only a limited amount of foreign exchange is available at this rate.

Iran's oil sales, its chief source of hard currency, have plummeted this year as a result of the sanctions, and legislators accused the central bank earlier this month of not injecting enough dollars into the market, thereby contributing to a fresh fall in the rial.

The foreign exchange center appears to have replaced a previous plan to establish a currency trading market, a proposal that was fiercely criticized by the private sector, which said the scheme would simply introduce yet another rate for the rial and bring more chaos to the economy.