Ghalibaf: Interest rates cannot reopen Strait of Hormuz or curb US inflation

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday that changes in interest rates cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ease the resulting energy shock, or curb inflation in the United States.

Ghalibaf said in a post on X that the US Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision would have no effect on the situation, asking whether the Fed, by raising interest rates, could reopen the Strait of Hormuz or produce even one additional barrel of oil.

“Let’s see if a hike could open SOH or produce a single barrel,” he stated.

He added that neither raising nor lowering interest rates could stabilise inflation expectations in the United States, arguing that they are being affected by a supply shock caused by the closure of key energy routes, namely the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Ghalibaf said, “it is the ‘Strait of Hormuz risk’ that determines the rate, and the control of this risk is now in Iran’s hands.”

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