In a televised speech, Ahmadinejad also said: “At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed.”
Ahmadinejad said that the fall in the value of the dollar has affected “the world economy and in particular the economy of world energy exporters.” He also stated: “The ever-increasing decrease in the dollar’s value is one of the world’s major problems.”
It is hardly disputable that the shrinking value of the U.S. dollar is a problem, and that this problem is reflected in the price of oil when measured in dollars. But Ahmadinejad’s solution is something else entirely: “I repeat my suggestion made six months ago at the OPEC summit in Riyadh to create a basket of credible currencies which would be the basis for oil transactions. Or alternatively, that OPEC countries create a new currency for their transactions.”
