The inflation rate in Iran today has been unprecedented for over the past 75 years. The record of inflation has exceeded 50 percent.
Ehsan Khandouzi, an MP, on his Twitter account said: “Recently, the 75-year-old record of inflation was broken in Iran; If this is not happening then, the Central Bank should publish the February report.”
He added: “Iran only has seen inflation over 50 percent in the years of occupation (World War I).”
Earlier, the Statistics Center of Iran, referring to inflation of about 39 percent in April 2021, had announced point inflation for the poorest decile of the country at 50.3 percent.
The Statistics Center of Iran, stating that the inflation of non-food items for the poor in April 2021 was 37.2 percent, spoke of the extraordinary increase in inflation of food items for the most vulnerable sections of society and announced:
“Food point inflation was 63.4 percent for the lowest decile and 61.3 percent for the highest income decile.”
These statistics show that inflationary pressures, especially on foodstuffs, which are the most essential commodities, are applied to the poorest and most deprived sections of society.
The statistics and figures in Iran presented by the government should be always handled with sceptic. Because the ‘engineering’ of the figures has become an industry, and for the government there is no more shame to spread lies in favor of the government. An industry, which includes all dimensions of the country’s affairs, including political, economic, social, and cultural elements, to blind the public mind and prevent the people to get the truth.
But sometimes because of the officials’ disputes on special occasions, news is revealed that represents the depth of the catastrophe.
Such facts in the regime are uncountable. On May 17, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, in his trip to Italy claimed that the Italians have a $30 billion investment in Iran. According to the state-run media, this is just an exaggeration.
The state-run website Tahririeh Studies Institute on May 18 on this subject wrote: “Defending the economic effects of the JCPOA agreement, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a bizarre claim that is not in line with normal economic logic.
“Zarif said: ‘Italy has a large presence in Iran, and Italian companies were very interested in cooperating with Iran, so that in this field they had set a contract of about $30 billion and $5 billion in credit.’
“Why Mohammad Javad Zarif mentions these numbers with detail and mentioning the headline is an expert error and contrary to the principle of transparency, but to reject this claim, it is enough to say that Italy owes $2,939 billion, which is equivalent to 134% of the country’s GDP.
“Such an indebted country does not have the capacity to invest $1,000 in Iran, and figures such as $30 billion in contracts and $5 billion in credit are wrong and indicative that Zarif is also unaware of the axioms of the international economy. Perhaps therefore Iranian embassies have no economic function and cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year, they only do simple consular office work.
“Iran has dozens of embassies in Europe, which does not have even $1 billion in economic ties with Iran, at staggering foreign exchange costs, but no active embassies in neighboring countries that import tens of billions of dollars from Iran.”
Finally mocking this claim, this website added: “The bottom line is that after the JCPOA was signed, there was ample opportunity for the Italians to invest $1 million from this $30 billion in investment and $5 billion in credit to make it possible for experts to believe the rest of the promises.” (State-run website Tahririeh Studies Institute, May 18, 2021)
