Economic Rumblings In Iran

The NYT reports that the Khamenei junta has restricted withdrawals from banks:

Deputy Finance Minister Asghar Abolhasani said withdrawals of more than 150 million rials (roughly $15,000) per day would be banned ''in order to combat money-laundering,'' state radio reported. The decision means an account holder cannot withdraw more than that amount daily in cash, but can still write checks for larger amounts.

And this, according to this reader, has led to some panic:

After this decision a rumor has spread that without a bailout, two major government owned banks (Melli and Mellat) will declare bankruptcy on Wednesday, January 27th. There is no way of confirming this, but the rumor itself has triggered a run on these two banks and people are rushing to get their money out (mostly in Tehran and Isfahan). 

Some branches have even run out of cash and did not pay the customers, triggering anger, unrest and anti government chants. Two branches where this has happened are: Mellat bank at Tehran's Bazar and Mellat bank in Sadeghiye Square (there are even reports that in the latter, one person was injured). I have not found any report in English on these rumors and the subsequent events however here is the relevant Farsi page in "balatarin" as noted abive.

Beside the rumor, which right now looks more like a self fulfilling prophecy, there is other reasons not to hold Rial (the Iranian currency): the government plans to devalue it in the new Iranian year which starts 21st March. Right now there is a more or less fixed exchange rate of 10000 Rials = 1 USD. Also some of subsidies will end at the same time (the most prominent one being the gasoline subsidy and the plan is to end all subsidies in 3 years period). So people expect a massive and sudden jump in the price of almost everything and as a result are abandoning Rial and getting into USD or gold.