Ahmadinejad’s Minister of Economy and Finance: $39 bn foreign debt, $40 bn outstanding financial obligations and $26 bn domestic debt
During debate in the mullahs’ Majlis (Parliament) yesterday, Davood Danesh Jafari, the proposed Minister of Economy and Finance, acknowledged that the clerical regime’s foreign and domestic debts stood at 105 billion dollars.
He said the government had 39 billion dollars in foreign debts and owed the domestic banking system, the Central Bank and credit companies 26 billion dollars, or half the country’s 2005 budget.
He added that more than 40 billion dollars spent on infrastructural projects that were to be paid from approved oil contracts had yet to be paid and were among the government’s obligations. As such, the regime’s total foreign debt stands at 79 billion dollars.
Danesh-Jafari reiterated that the rate of inflation was more than 15 percent and higher than all countries in the region. The actual inflation rate in Iran is far greater however. He added that the government had planned to increase taxes to a level that would enable it to provide for the country’s budget without oil revenues. This move would, first and foremost, place intolerable burden on the vast majority of the Iranian people who live below the poverty line. Earlier, a Majlis deputy had admitted that 90 percent of the Iranian people live below the poverty line.
Rampant poverty, unbridled inflation and increasing debts have plagued the economy despite the fact that oil revenues rose 100 percent in the past year alone.
Mullahs plunder Iran’s wealth and much of country’s assets are in hands of ruling gangs. In addition, this wealth is allocated to fund suppressive agencies, military expenditures, weapons purchases, nuclear projects and export of terrorism, pushing Iran’s economy to the brink of destruction. The lion’s share of economic activity is controlled by the Supreme Leader and affiliated groupings and foundations. The gap between the rich, mostly those in the government, and the poor is several times greater than the time of the Shah.
Policies and plans by the mullahs’ new president, who has promised economic improvement for every one, would only aggravate the economic predicament, poverty and inflation. Eradicating corruption and improving the economic situation in Iran could only be achieved through changing the ruling theocracy and establishing democracy and popular sovereignty.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 23, 2005
