The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported on August 31 that the current dire situation with the Iranian economy has now hit its worst point, following decades of institutionalized corruption within the Iranian regime at the hands of the mullahs.

The NCRI said, “While all economic indicators underline that the regime has no solutions for Iran’s economic crises, the regime’s new president Ebrahim Raisi bogusly claims he will resolve economic issues.”

Iranian citizens take to the streets daily to protest as many workers face extreme poverty and are struggling to make ends meet. Speaking of these protests, the Etemad daily wrote in their publication last Saturday that, “The retirement funds are on the verge of collapse, with trillions of dollars’ worth of uncleared debts. Due to the emptiness of the treasury, the country’s welfare organization cannot provide adequate services to its target population.” 

Quoting the Etemad daily, the NCRI said, “The result of these problems are long queues of people, in offices of the Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee, waiting to become beneficiaries of this institutions.”

In a report from the Khomeini Relief Committee, it said that estimates indicated that between 2001 and 2019 up to 33% of Iran’s population fell below the poverty line. In 2011, the poverty line lay at an income of 950 thousand tomans. By 2020, that figure had sky-rocketed to 10 million tomans, a staggering inflation rate in just 9 years.

Etemad daily wrote, “Today, poverty has a broader meaning than material poverty, including lack of access to safe water, nutrition, health services, education, clothing and shelter, social insurance, and employment. Poverty can be defined in at least four dimensions: lack of economic, cultural, and social capital.”

The state-run Setar-e Sobh published comments from an economist who blamed the problems face in Iran on the decisions made by the government and high officials who ‘determine the course of the economy’.

The NCRI said, “The so-called private companies or institutions such as Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee are linked to Khamenei or Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). In other words, Raisi, who is Khamenei’s handpicked president, would never resolve Iran’s economic problems since his master and the IRGC create these problems.”

Another state-run media outlet, Aftab-e Yazd questioned why a Chief for the Central Bank has yet to be appointed, at a time when the value of the national currency is declining and the rate of inflation needs to be controlled.

The Jahan-e Sanat daily criticized the Iranian government, specifically Raisi, for their decision to withdraw money from Iran’s resources to fund their ‘projects’. They asked if the officials were ‘willing to live under the burden of staggering costs such as housing and food and have no prospects for the future of themselves and their children’, in order to understand how serious the situation is that they have created.

The NCRI said, “While factional feuds for achieving the lion share of Iran’s resources and wealth increase, state media of both factions warn that the ongoing economic crises increase people’s hatred toward the regime. And this would have irreparable consequences for the regime.”