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United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Iran's currency has fallen past three million rials to the American dollar, and has predicted that Iran's economy will shrink by more than 25 percent over the coming year.
Bessent made the remarks in an interview with Iran International on Monday, October 26, 2026, speaking to the channel's Kambiz Tavana about Washington's economic pressure on Tehran.
On the currency, Bessent said he believed Iran's leadership was hiding the rial's true value. He said the rate had gone through three million to the dollar, and that this was why the authorities had stopped printing the price. That figure is Bessent's own estimate, not an officially published exchange rate.
On the wider economy, Bessent predicted that between March 2026 and March 2027, Iran's economy would contract by more than 25 percent. He said that fall would be steeper than the contraction the Soviet Union suffered after its collapse.
Bessent also used the interview to urge ordinary Iranians to stop paying taxes and to stock up on fuel ahead of winter, while saying humanitarian channels for food and medicine remained open.
The warning comes against a currency slide already visible in open-market rates: in late August, the dollar was trading at about 2.07 million rials, after the currency had lost roughly half its value since the start of 2026. Bessent tied the pressure to Washington's campaign to cut off Iran's oil revenue and financial lifelines, and said Tehran was wrong to expect the United States midterm elections to change that pressure.