"The enemies and ill-wishers want to make a fuss and present wrong information to provoke and deviate the market," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in a town in the western province of Hamadan, where he was on one of his frequent provincial visits. 

"In order to disturb the market they buy a lot of gold coins with their huge amount of money ... they do the same in the foreign exchange market. But we have got enough reserves to meet all the country's needs," he said in the speech, broadcast live on state television.

The price of gold coins and foreign currency has risen sharply in recent months, a fact economists put down above all to fears that rising inflation is sapping the buying power of the Iranian currency, the rial.