As Iran’s economic crisis deepens, Iran’s state-run media and officials acknowledge how the regime’s corruption has plagued Iranian people’s lives. They also warn of people’s reactions to the ongoing crises in Iran.
“We will have a lot of economic problems in the next four years; the problems that have accumulated in the last ten years will overflow in the next four years,” Masoud Khansari, President of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, told the state-run Akhbar-e Sanat daily on Wednesday.
“In the last 16 years, 10 million people have been added to the working sector, but the level of employment has increased by only 3 million. Social capital has collapsed, which also affects the economy. Our 10-year average economic growth has been almost zero,” Khansari said, asking a question from the candidates of the regime’s sham presidential elections.
“Costs have risen at all levels and attacked workers’ livelihoods,” wrote the semi-official ILNA News Agency on Thursday. According to ILNA, the cost of “Transportation has risen by an average of 30%; Housing, medical and educational rates are also rising, but the most tangible increase is in the food sector, which increases weekly and daily.”
This year, the regime’s president Hassan Rouhani bragged about the “39% increase” of workers’ salaries. Due to the inflation and since Rouhani’s government continues increasing prices of basic goods, Iranian workers are grappling with poverty.
According to ILNA, “In the first two months of the [Persian] year, the food basket of households alone has increased by one million and 170 thousand tomans.”
“So far, the effect of wage increases has only faded with the increase in prices. Workers’ wages today have been lost to inflation. From now on, any increase in the rate means a reversal of the purchasing power of the workers,” ILNA acknowledged.
Are sanctions being Iran’s problem?
Iran’s state-run media and economists have rejected this claim that sanctions are the problem of Iran’s economy.
“Unless there is a fundamental change, or in other words, reforms in the Iranian economy, we will certainly face worse conditions and problems soon,” said Hossain Raghfar, one of the regime’s economists, on Wednesday. “Over the past few decades, we have had an orientation in the field of economics that has caused the country to face many crises and problems, and now we have to make a revision and reform in this issue,” Raghfar added, according to the state-run Setare Sobh daily on May 19.
Raghfar underscored that Iran’s economy “has been a victim of the [regime’s] oligarchy for the past few decades, and now the government is at the service of this oligarchy. If this path and trend do not change, Iran’s situation will worsen in the future.” Raghfar underlined that “Iran’s economic problems are mostly of domestic origin. Even if the nuclear deal issue and other international issues be resolved, Iran’s economy will still be influenced by domestic decisions.”
Iran’s economic crises have turned society into a powder keg. People use every opportunity to express their hatred toward the regime as the regime’s farce presidential elections approach calls for a boycott to grow and spread across Iran.
“No official has yet commented on why prices are rising. No one has revealed the reasons for the tsunami of rising commodity prices at the beginning of the year. An issue that could lead to dissatisfaction among the people,” Vatan-e Emrooz daily warned regime officials on Wednesday.
“In recent years, countless pressures have been put on people’s lives, which is also rooted in the inefficiency of the country’s management system and, of course, the inefficiency of previous governments,” said Hossain Marashi, one of the regime’s former officials on Wednesday.
“During the last two decades, the people’s political, social, and economic demands have accumulated. Since these demands have not been fulfilled, they have caused a great deal of frustration. People’s resentment is a political warning that is now shown in the form of unwillingness to participate in elections,” Marashi added, according to the state-run Sharq daily on Wednesday.