By ESMAEIL MOHADES
For more than four decades, Iran has had inflation rates in double-digits which have left the country in a state of extreme poverty, leaving its citizens struggling to deal with the dire economic and social crises. While the Iranian regime has claimed that there is the hope of resolving the current issues, despite talks and meetings between officials, nothing has yet been done to help the Iranian people.
Government officials in various meetings, including the Economic Coordination Council and the private sector, claim they have found the key to resolving the crisis by cutting off the Preferential Exchange Rate for basic goods and paying them directly in the form of credit cards to disadvantaged people.
The regime’s Economy Minister, Ehsan Khandouzi stated during the meeting that the government agrees that the Preferential Exchange Rate procedures need to be reformed. On the other hand, economists have warned in the past that the elimination of the Preferential Exchange Rate would lead to further skyrocketing prices of food and other basic needs.
The dire state of the economic crisis in Iran means that increasing or decreasing the Exchange rate will not resolve the current issues. State-run media have been reporting concerns of regime overthrow that is on the horizon due to the restiveness in society. They have warned the regime that further inflation and any manipulation of the Exchange rate ‘will have to render severe security and social consequences in addition to widening the class gap’.
On October 19, the state-run Jahan-e-Sanat daily published an article titled “A Look at the Crisis-Creating Phenomenon and Its Effects on Iran’s Economy. While referring to the crises and challenges created between the regime and neighboring countries, the piece concludes that the mullahs’ regime is being swept away by regional countries and an ideological-economic siege has painted a darker outlook for the mullahs’ future.
Jahan-e-Sanat said that the gap that has formed between the government and the Iranian people has led society to band together to create a national movement. As the gap widens, the threat of national uprisings is inevitable, especially as the socio-economic crises in Iran worsen. The restiveness among Iranian citizens has been previously described as a powder keg, which will take just one spark to alight.
The state-run Hamdeli newspaper quoted the former secretary of the Government Economic Coordination Task Force, Masood Neeli in their October 19 publication. He said that during the second half of the Iranian calendar year [between September 23, 2021, and March 21, 2022], the ‘devasting flood of inflation’ will have consequences for the economy and described the situation as ‘very difficult and complicated’.
Neeli warned, “I have not seen any other period as dangerous as today in terms of inflation. These floods can destroy us all.”
The regime has milked the country and the people out of their last rials [Iran’s national currency], and today, the public has nothing to lose. This is the reason behind continued protests across the country despite the regime’s ongoing oppression.
This article was first published by iranfocus
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