Reports from the Central Bank of the Iranian regime indicate that government debts to the banking system have doubled during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, and the government’s budget deficit has worsened.
The Central Bank of the Iranian regime recently released annual budget details for the period from 2017 to 2020, showing an annual deficit of 30%.
Despite this, the Central Bank has still refrained from reporting on the budget realization status during Raisi’s term.
In 2018, then–president Hassan Rouhani had instructed the Central Bank to stop publishing the country’s budget realization reports, citing the need to keep government information confidential due to US sanctions.
Pro-government media in the Iranian regime are attempting to highlight the 5% growth in GDP in 2023 as a success for Raisi.
However, details from the Statistical Center’s report show that the only reason for the relatively higher GDP growth last year was a 21.8% increase in oil production and a 16.7% increase in government spending.
Meanwhile, none of the mentioned GDP growth drivers have had a positive impact on people’s livelihoods and are not sustainable.
In March, after a six-month halt, the Central Bank of the Iranian regime published the inflation report for December of the previous year, which indicated that the 2023 inflation rate broke the 49% record set in 1995.
According to the Central Bank, in December 2023, the point-to-point urban inflation rate was 54.2% and the average urban inflation rate was 55.9%.
However, in March and April, the Central Bank, in its debt and dowry payment calculation table, announced the annual inflation rate for 2024 to be 52.3%, the highest annual inflation rate in the past 80 years.
At the same time, the Statistical Center of Iran, by publishing the point-to-point inflation rate for 2023, announced that among commodities, various types of meat led the price increases with a 50.9% inflation rate.
According to published statistics, the inflation rate this year was 32.24%, and the public transportation services sector topped the price increases with 58% inflation.
Inflation in Iran has been increasing daily, and a recent report from the Statistical Center at the end of May showed that inflation in the red meat and poultry group was about 74% in the 12 months leading up to May 2024.
According to this report, inflation in the housing sector was over 40%.
Official reports, including the report from the Parliamentary Research Center, show that the pressure from rising costs on one hand and the lack of proportionate wage increases on the other has caused families to reduce their consumption of food and beverages.
According to a report published by the Parliamentary Research Center in April and May 2024, the calorie intake of Iranians in 2022 was below the standard level.
According to official data recorded on changes in the rental index, the highest growth record in rental rates in the history of recorded rental data was registered under the 13th government.
Rental rates jumped by 44% and 52% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, which is unprecedented in Iran’s economic history since the rental index was recorded.
Tejarat News website, in a comparative report, announced: “Ebrahim Raisi‘s government holds the record for the highest increase in gold coin prices in the first two and a half years of activity among the governments of the past 40 years.”
According to this report, in the first 32 months of the 13th government’s activity, the price of gold coins jumped by 291%, the highest increase among the post-1979 revolution governments.
In the first two and a half years of Hassan Rouhani’s government, the price of gold coins increased by 11%.
The price of the dollar also grew by 160% in the first two and a half years of Raisi’s government, whereas it had increased by 10% in the first 32 months of Rouhani’s government.
