The Impacts of International Sanctions and other Factors Affecting Exchange Rate in Iran

An evaluation of the foreign exchange market in Iran implies that the fluctuations in exchange rate there have been considerably influenced by the political factors such as imposing international sanctions. Such effect has been arising particularly from fluctuations in oil revenues. Accordingly, this study has explored the effect of mutual sanctions imposed mostly in 2012 on Iran’s exchange market through its cross effects on oil exports and government budget deficit and then, impacts of the sanctions before 2012 is also evaluated. To this end, the paper has employed the ARDL method to this exploration using relevant time series data from 1980 to 2014. The obtained results indicate that the sanctions imposed before 2012 have exerted directly a weak effect on the exchange rate while they have affected volatilities of exchange rate more strongly after 2012. In addition, oil export earnings and unified currency regime have positive and significant effects on exchange rate; furthermore, consumer price index and gross domestic product have also had direct and significant effects on the exchange rate.