The skyrocketing prices of livelihood have put Iran’s people in such a predicament that officials, state media, and government affiliates are constantly acknowledging it these days.
Among them is Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, who said: “Expensiveness has caused many problems for people.” (Tasnim, March 11)
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the parliament, also acknowledged the “Instability of prices”, and acknowledged the high cost of primitive goods, including chicken, and promised to control prices next year. Hosseini Eshkevari, a member of the assembly of experts, also said: “People are in need of livelihood. This unbridled expensiveness is not a joke. What is this for?” (State TV, Channel 5, February 19)
Meanwhile, as usual, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has attributed the dire economic situation and the high cost of goods to sanctions and said: “The high price of some goods is a consequence of the country’s widespread sanctions.” (President.ir, March 9)
He mentioned only ‘some goods’, while the price of all the necessities of life is constantly increasing, and the high price has taken people’s breath away.
And who does not know that the current inflation is on the one hand due to the institutionalized plundering by the regime and on the other hand due to the spending of people’s property for the anti-national nuclear project and foreign interference and export of terrorism to countries in the region.
Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Expediency Discernment Council, also said about this situation: “This inefficient state of the country’s economic management must really end. From 2014 to this year, people’s purchasing power has fallen sharply.
“Now an important part of the problems is not related to sanctions, but to poor management; with inadvertently, they have drastically devalued the currency against foreign currencies. You can also see the status of the stock market. Economic executives claim that both the wheel of the centrifuge and the wheel of people’s lives are circulating. Such words are strange and sad in this situation.” (Fars, March 7)
The Supreme Leader’s representative in the city of Mashhad, Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, while acknowledging the skyrocketing prices of goods and the scarcity of people’s livelihood, attacked the Rouhani government and said: “Today, we have many livelihood and economic problems in the country, and the issue of these problems and high prices has reached a point where the leadership has raised this as a high point of their concern.
“Are livelihood problems due to US sanctions? Sanctions may be effective, but our problems are not because of it. Our problems in the social arena today are mainly due to the fact that those in the country who became responsible are not jihadists. If the officials of this system and the country were jihadists, today, not a single bit of these problems, worries and livelihood worries would exist.” (Fars, March 11)
The spread of poverty among the people has caused the poor to remove meat from their table and the middle class to reduce its consumption. According to the report of the Parliamentary Research Center, in 2019, the amount of meat consumption by the middle class has decreased by more than 30 percent compared to 2017.
The Aftab-e-Yazd acknowledged on March 4: “Unfair distribution of resources not only makes it impossible for a section of society to enjoy the desired well-being, but also affects other individual and social aspects of their lives. How can a worker not suffer from complications when he or she is unable to support himself / herself?”
Earlier, Mohammad Mehdi Farvardin, a member of the parliament from Firoozabad in Fars province, had inevitably admitted: “In addition to the coronavirus, we are witnessing far worse viruses such as high costs, discrimination, rampant inflation and the devaluation of the national currency, which have disrupted people’s livelihoods and targeted the souls of our loved ones.” (ICANA, January 19)
And finally, the state media conclude:
“When survival is at stake, one example can be fury.” (Resalat, March 2)
Or “when the waves of dissatisfaction move and quickly turn into a not expected violent storm, it will not leave anything behind itself.” (Mardom Salari, March 7)
