State news agencies in Iran, including the national broadcaster IRIB, reported that as of today, new bread prices have been registered in all smart card readers used for bread sales in Tehran.
The 40% to 66% price increase for bread in Tehran has begun while most provinces in Iran had already implemented similar price hikes.
Previously, Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, reported from Tehran on Wednesday, August 28, stating that “bread prices have been arbitrarily increasing at bakeries for a while,” which “can have a direct impact on people’s lives.”
Although this judiciary-affiliated news agency reported a “50% increase” in bread prices in Tehran, the actual prices showed a 100% increase.
In mid-August, the Nournews website reported an unofficial and quiet increase in bread prices in Tehran, stating that some types of bread had seen price hikes of more than 100%.
This website, linked to the Supreme National Security Council, reported: “The bread price increase is being quietly implemented in some areas of Tehran. The price of Barbari bread in some areas has risen from 50,000 rials to 70,000 rials, and Taftoon bread from 7,000 rials to 15,000 rials.”
(Each US dollar is equivalent to 600,000 rials.)
Nournews also quoted a flour industry activist saying that “the government has lost control over bread prices because the fundamental policies supporting this sector have been flawed for years.”
Statements by regime’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and other government officials regarding the implementation of subsidies and the potential increase in gasoline and bread prices come at a time when a significant portion of the population lives below the poverty line.
Earlier, sociologist Maqsoud Farasatkhah, in an interview with the Ham-Mihan newspaper on August 13, stated: “Based on my research, at least one-third of Iranian households are facing absolute poverty in some form.”
He further mentioned, “We are dealing with a group that is going hungry and surviving on the minimum number of calories,” adding: “Last year, Iran was ranked among the ten countries with low hunger levels in the Global Hunger Index. However, field reports indicate that millions of people in the country are living with hunger.”
