The Iranian economy is suffering greatly right now, which means that the people of Iran are much worse off, struggling to put food on the table, but still the government is continuing its malign economic policies and attempting to deceive the public with fake statistics.
Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemati recently announced that Iran was “out of economic recession” thanks to a 3.9% growth over the third and fourth quarters of 2020, but Iran’s Statistic Centre said that economic growth was less than 1%.
To make matters more confusing, the International Monetary Fund wrote in its latest report that Iran’s economy had decreased by 6.5% in 2018 and 5.4% in 2019 and was expected to drop by 5% in 2020. While the World Bank mainly agrees with these findings.
Someone is wrong here and it doesn’t seem like it’s the IMF or World Bank.
Still, figures only tell a small part of the story. The real dark tale is that the Iranian people have to keep cutting items from their shopping list for being too expensive and parents are selling their organs to keep a roof over their kids’ heads.
So why is poverty increasing? Well, one of the main problems is that the government continues to increase the printing of banknotes to fund the budget, but this just leads to increased inflation.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf admitted this on Saturday saying that the budget structure was in need of reform, but sadly this was more likely an instance of factional infighting rather than a reasoned attempt at debate. Especially because, the Iranian Resistance said, minor reforms will not fix a problem caused by institutional corruption.
Besides, the parliament just passed a budget that relies on oil sales that are unlikely to materialise due to international sanctions on Iran, so it will also result in the printing of more money and the increase in inflation.
Even the state-run media outlets are talking about this and the rise in inflation, with Eghtesad-e Saramd daily saying that last year saw a “record in banknote printing” and Arman daily calling inflation “one of the biggest and most fundamental problems that has plagued Iran’s economy for the past 40 years”.
The Resistance wrote: “Since Iran has had negative economic growth in the last few years, the regime tries to fund its illicit activities through unsupported banknote printing, distribution of debt securities, high taxes, and the sale of cheap oil… Iran’s economy is devastated and that sanctions are not the main problem. This is why Iranian people, who are grappling with poverty, chanted during their major uprising and daily protests, ‘Our enemy is right here; they lie when they say it is the US’.”
