Iran’s Economic Crises Persist After Sham Presidential Election

 

Written by
Shamsi Saadati

The Iranian regime’s sham presidential election ended on June 18. Regime’s candidates, mainly Ebrahim Raisi, the Supreme Leader’s preferred candidate, spoke of economic reforms during the presidential debates. Yet, facts acknowledged by the state media show the regime and its officials have no solution to Iran’s economic crises.
In recent days state media acknowledged some part of Iran’s economic problems. However, the figures presented by these media underline that Iran’s economic crises continue to worsen under the regime due to the mullahs’ corruption.
“The rising inflation has increased the social gap. As a result, the population of people under the poverty line has increased from 15 to 30 percent,” Masoud Khansari, President of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, said on June 16. “Candidates rarely addressed Iran’s main economic challenges. Instead, candidates made some promises but did not say how they would fulfill these promises,” Khansari added, according to the state-run Resalat daily.
One of the main reasons for the rampant inflation in Iran is the massive liquidity growth and low production rate. Hassan Rouhani’s government and Iran’s Central Bank started banknote printing for compensating budget deficit. As a result, the liquidity grew rapidly, creating a high inflation rate and skyrocketing prices of goods.

But was the budget for helping Iranians? No, the regimes’ military institutions and organizations, such as the Ministry of Defense and the Revolutionary Guards, had the lion’s share of the budget. Thus, to fund its illicit activities. To compensate for the budget deficit for covering its illicit activities, the regime resorted to banknote printing, thus creating financial problems.
“The 2020 budget was finalized at 5.7 trillion tomans. The next year’s budget is 1.3 quadrillion tomans, which has a 140% increase compared to last year’s budget. In addition, in this budget, 340 trillion have been considered on the condition of realizing the income, and even if we eliminate this amount, in 2021, we will face an 81% growth of the budget compared to 2020. Therefore, with this budget, we will have a high budget deficit in 2021, while the budget deficit in previous years has led to the growth of the monetary base and increased liquidity,” Khansari said in this regard.
Therefore Iranian people would have to experience skyrocketing prices.

How the mullahs destroyed Iran’s economy
“Iranians started 1400 [Persian New Year in March 2021] with skyrocketing prices. Even the prices of services, such as buses and metro, increased. When workers’ wages increased by 25 percent, the price of the metro and bus, which are part of government services, increased by 30 percent. Besides, the prices of basic needs increased every hour. In other words, the increase in salaries not only counts, but it has also caused inflation, which makes people poor every day,” wrote the state-run Eghtesad Pouya on June 19.
On Monday, the state-run ILNA News Agency reported that the living costs in Iran have increased by 32%. ILNA’s article is based on the regime’s official statistics and far from the real skyrocketing prices of goods. According to ILNA, the minimum cost of living is around 9 million tomans. Yet, according to ILNA, “The minimum wage, with all bonuses, is about 4 million tomans. This 4 million toman wouldn’t even cover the cost of renting a house and monthly transportation for a family.”
“The minimum living cost has become about 9.1 million tomans, that is, in two months and a few days, a 32.15% increase in living expenses. If workers’ wages could cover part of their living expenses in March, the salaries have decreased by 32.15%, with a more than 32% increase in living expenses. Right now, in the middle of June, the living expenses of the workers have increased by about 2 million and 400 thousand tomans,” ILNA added, quoting Faramarz Tawfiqi, Chairman of the Wage Committee of the Supreme Islamic Council.

How the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps IRGC plunders Iran’s economy
The increasing economic crises in Iran would have consequences for the regime. In addition, the recent nationwide boycott of the regime’s sham election showed Iranian people’s hatred toward the ruling theocracy.
While calling people’s hatred “disappointment and desperation,” the state-run Eghtesad-e Pouya warned regime officials of people taking “uncommon ways” to express their hatred.
“The biggest sickness in the society is disappointment about the future. So when youth try and fail, sooner or later become disappointed and might try uncommon ways,” Eghtesad-e Pouya wrote.

 

 

Iran’s Economic Crises Persist After Sham Presidential Election

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