Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani on March 2, 2021 claimed that, “When we said that the centrifuges would spin and the wheel of the economy would spin too, we kept our promise and we made nuclear energy uncostly.”
Despite his ridiculous claim, according to Iran’s state media, 80 percent of the people are below the poverty line and are forced to live on very low incomes.
Four years ago, during Iran’s so-called presidential election in 2017, the regime’s current parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf acknowledged the existence of a 96 percent disadvantaged majority against a prosperous four percent minority.
The state-run daily Farhikhtegan, citing a Central Bank report, on March 14, 2021 wrote: “Economic growth in 2014 was about 2.5 percent, while this component for 2019 was -7 percent. According to the statistics, in the eleventh and twelfth governments, the country’s economy has experienced negative growth four times, bringing the total economic growth to about zero in the last eight years.”
It is suspected that the statistics of the relevant government institutions, including the Central Bank, have been downsized and their reports do not reflect all the realities of the economic crisis, but the same statistics and reports also indicate the catastrophe that the theocracy has caused to the economy and people’s livelihood.
The state-run daily Mostaghel on March 15 wrote: “Given the government’s tight control over the Central Bank and the Statistics Center of Iran and the slow and expedient publication of the statistics in the society, which is unreliable to many economists, according to these statistics, the average economic growth of zero percent is quite evident, point to point inflation is more than 50 percent, successive changes in the prices of currency and gold, etc. The growth of more than a few hundred percent and the catastrophic housing and countless other cases do not promise to turn the economic wheel.”
An Mostaghel daily article writer further wrote to Rouhani: “Economic indicators cover most different areas of society, including lifestyle, employment, and livelihood, which contradicts with the order of his Excellency’s command to turn the wheel of the economy.”
Meanwhile, the stagnant economy of the government relies on the government taking over the pockets of the people through taxes, borrowing from the Central Bank, printing banknotes, and robbing the National Development Fund, which has caused inflation and price rise. This has thrown the people into the vortex of poverty and misery.
Arman daily on this subject on March 15 wrote: “In a situation where we are facing a high deficit, there is a double pressure on the resources of banks and the Central Bank, the result of which is the withdrawal of Rials from the National Development Fund. Since the reserves in the fund are very limited, we know that any withdrawal from the National Development Fund will lead to money printing. Next year, part of inflation is due to the budget bill that is being approved today.”
Yes, the cycle of the economy is spinning, but with high inflation and practically in this cycle, the deprived and impoverished people are those who are being crushed under this spin.
A report by the regime’s Statistics Center said: “According to the report of the Statistics Center on Inflation of Foodstuffs in February, there is a 100 percent change in 17 foodstuffs compared to February of last year. Although the March inflation report will be published in April, but the comparison of the announced prices of Eid (Persian New Year) fruit in March 2021 and its comparison with March 2020 shows an increase of 11 to 68 percent in prices.”
Regarding the claim of Rouhani, Nezame al-din Mousavi, a member of parliament and former director of Fars, said: “He has made a big mistake about the verb to spin, or he has seen the direction of the rotation of the wheel wrong, or what he has seen was not a wheel at all.” (ICANA, March 6)
Finally, the state-run daily Farhikhtegan made a clear conclusion about Iran’s economic situation and wrote: “Investment falls into a rate of -6, eight years with zero economic growth, record inflation in the last 60 years, 700 percent rise in the dollar rate, 10-year record of class division, pulverization of the system’s social capital with the collapse of the stock market, people’s empty tables, 50 percent construction decline and 650 percent price growth.”
