A bizarre bazaar… The Economist

Iran’s stock market is going wild, from The Economist:

“Yet, somehow, the Iranian stockmarket is booming. Its main index, the Tedpix, has soared tenfold in two years in local currency terms, and doubled since Iran declared a lockdown on March 27th. Even when measured in hard currency it is the world’s best-performing index. “In three years we’ve tripled our euro value,” says Maciej Wojtal, who manages Europe’s only fund focused on Iran’s market.”

And, this:

“The main reason it is booming is that Iranians have few other places to put their cash. With inflation above 30% and the value of the Iranian rial dropping, there is little incentive to open a savings account at home. The government makes it hard to buy foreign currencies; American sanctions put stockmarkets abroad out of reach. Some Iranians buy land or cars, but prices are too high for most.”

Here is a chart from tradingeconomics.com