Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that measures were under way to reform the banking sector after protests erupted over the fall of the national currency.
Mr Pezeshkian said he had instructed the interior minister to engage in dialogue with protesters to hear their demands.
Iranian traders and shopkeepers staged protests for a second day on Monday after the country’s rial plummeted to 1.42 million to the dollar on Sunday, before recovering slightly to 1.38 million.
“The livelihood of the people is my daily concern. We have fundamental measures on the agenda to reform the monetary and banking system and preserve the purchasing power of the people,” Mr Pezeshkian said on X.
“I instructed the Minister of Interior to hear the protesters' legitimate demands through dialogue with their representatives so that the government can act responsibly and with all its might to resolve the problems,” he added.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said a dialogue mechanism would be set up and include talks with protest leaders.
"We officially recognise the protests ... We hear their voices and we know that this originates from natural pressure arising from the pressure on people's livelihoods," she said on Tuesday in comments carried by state media.
Videos on social media showed hundreds of people taking part in rallies on Saadi Street in central Tehran and in the Shoush neighbourhood near the Grand Bazaar.
There were no reports of a police crackdown, although security was tight at the protests, witnesses said.
The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students held protests on Tuesday at four universities in Tehran.
Iran's central bank governor Mohammad Reza Farzin resigned on Monday and was replaced by former economy minister Abdolnaser Hemmati.
According to the state statistics centre, Iran's inflation rose to 42.2 per cent this month from the same period last year, and is 1.8 per cent higher than last month.
Food prices rose 72 per cent, and health and medical items were up 50 per cent from December last year. Many critics see the pace of price rises as a sign of approaching hyperinflation.
Reports in official Iranian media that the government is planning to increase taxes in the Iranian new year, which begins on March 21, have heightened concern.
Iran's economy has been hit hard by the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018 and is at risk of recession, with the World Bank forecasting GDP will shrink by 1.7 per cent this year and 2.8 per cent next year.
Iranian security services suppressed previous rounds of protests with violent crackdowns and widespread arrests rather than dialogue.
Iran remains under intense international pressure, with US President Donald Trump saying on Monday that he might back another round of Israeli airstrikes if Tehran resumed work on ballistic missiles or any nuclear weapons programme.
