Economic aid - recipient: $116.5 million (1995)
Currency: Iranian rial (IRR)
Currency code: IRR
Exchange rates: Iranian rials per US dollar - 1,754.71 (January 2001), 1,764.43 (2000), 1,725.93 (1999), 1,751.86 (1998), 1,752.92 (1997), 1,750.76 (1996)
note: Iran has three officially recognized exchange rates; the averages for 1999 are as follows: the official floating rate of 1,750 rials per US dollar, the "export" rate of 3,000 rials per US dollar, and the variable Tehran Stock Exchange rate, which averages 7,863 rials per US dollar; the market rate averages 8,615 rials per US dollar
Fiscal year: 21 March - 20 March
Iran Communications
Telephones - main lines in use: 6.313 million (1997)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 265,000 (August 1998)
Telephone system: general assessment: inadequate but currently being modernized and expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently connected