Statistics indicate that Iran’s year-on-year inflation rate is approaching 50%. An economist warned that if Masoud Pezeshkian’s government fails to control economic tensions, Iran will face a “major stagflation,” predicting that inflation may surpass 60% by the end of the year (March 21, 2026).
The state-run Khabar Online website reported on Saturday, November 1, that official data indicate a “deteriorating situation” in Iran, noting that inflation in essential consumer goods such as food and beverages is far higher than general inflation in other goods and services.
The report emphasized the “expanding scope of poverty,” stating that while the regime’s parliamentary research center had previously reported that 30% of the population lived in poverty, new estimates show that the number of people living below the poverty line has risen to 36%.
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In this context, Rahmatollah Norouzi, a member of parliament representing Aliabad-e-Katul, said on Saturday: “Today, if a worker or an employee living in a rented house earns 45 million tomans (450 million rials / about 392 dollars), it means they are living below the poverty line.”
Earlier, some official labor unions had estimated the cost of living in Iran at about 50 million tomans (500 million rials / around 435 dollars).
Fatemeh Mohajerani, the spokesperson for Pezeshkian’s government, said on October 21 that the poverty line in 2024 was estimated at 6,128,739 tomans (61,287,390 rials / about 54 dollars) per person. Her remarks sparked widespread criticism, especially since Mohammad Reza Tajik, a member of the regime’s Supreme Labor Council, had told the state-run Tasnim News Agency on February 19, 2025, that the council’s wage committee had set the workers’ monthly living basket at 23.4 million tomans (234 million rials / about 204 dollars).
Currently, the base monthly wage for workers covered by the labor law is less than 11 million tomans (110 million rials / about 96 dollars), and with benefits included, around 15 million tomans (150 million rials / about 130 dollars).
Khabar Online also referred to the ongoing “hunger crisis,” adding that given the current high inflation, “both the severity of hunger and the number of hungry people are likely to increase in the coming years.”
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In this regard, Morteza Afghah, an economist and a faculty member at Ahvaz University, expressed concern over the current situation, telling Khabar Online that he considers this crisis “the result of right-wing economic policies” that some continue to recommend to the government.
According to him, the result of these policies and “this black hole of poverty” is that hundreds of thousands of people do not have enough income to afford even the basic food they need.
Afghah warned that unless the government eliminates unnecessary expenditures and reforms the tax system “so that the wealthy shoulder the tax burden,” and instead continues “to prey upon people’s livelihoods,” the situation will become even worse.
According to estimates by Iran’s Ministry of Health, at least 10,000 people die annually due to omega-3 fatty acid deficiency, another 10,000 from inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, and about 25,000 more due to a lack of whole grains and bread in their diets.
Between 50% and 70% of Iran’s population also suffers from vitamin D deficiency — a crisis that directly results in weakened immune systems and an increase in bone-related diseases.
As a result of the Iranian regime’s failed economic, domestic, and foreign policies over recent decades, skyrocketing inflation has severely affected the lives of citizens, especially low-income groups, and the prices of essential goods have risen to unprecedented levels.
