With the dire state of the economy in Iran worsening day by day, more Iranian people are forced to search through piles of trash for items that they can sell to earn money to make ends meet and provide for their families.
When the Iranian regime’s President, Ebrahim Raisi and his administration came to power back in August, they promised to boost the country’s economy and reduce the livelihood and socio-economic problems faced by Iranian citizens.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) said, “State media, however, while quoting the Regime Statistics Center and official government numbers, are reporting that the claims made by Raisi and members of the cabinet are wrong, and not only has the country’s economy and people’s livelihood not improved but inflation and commodity prices have risen.”
The state-run Etemad daily reported on November 14 that the increase of food and beverage prices from October 2020 to October 2021 was 61.4 percent, putting it in a ‘hyperinflation’ state which has crossed the limits of normal inflation.
The immense inflation rates have meant that, according to the Mostaghel daily in their November 16 report, “Very high cost of food and supplies, astronomical rents rate, travel costs, skyrocketing health care costs, … all are imposing enormous pressure on the middle class.”
The MEK said, “The economic situation is so dire that the regime, even through its own official statistics, is forced to acknowledge that conditions are now beyond the crisis.”
According to the Etemad daily in their November 14 report, despite Raisi’s cabinet’s promises, the daily increase of prices of basic goods within their first 100 days in office does not show that they have any improvements. Prices are set to skyrocket again as the preferential exchange rate is due to eliminated, leaving those below the poverty line extremely vulnerable.
For the poor and vulnerable citizens of Iran, the situation has reached the point that the quality of food obtained is no longer important, just as long as they can get enough to satisfy their daily needs. More and more members of society are falling way below the poverty line and are desperately struggling to make it out alive.
The MEK said, “The root of this situation is clear, even according to government experts, being institutionalized and structural corruption. As such, every economic project and plan in Iran, despite the quantity and quality, becomes a source for rent and looting by government officials.”
Member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), Mohsen Zanganeh stated in a report on the Eghtesad website that the distribution of around $55 billion based on the preferential exchange rate did not reduce prices, but instead caused ‘many cases of rent and economic corruption’.
Prices would have not skyrocketed throughout Iran as they did if the money was instead spent on buying basic goods for the Iranian people. Instead, the money was stolen by government-affiliated rent-seekers and imported goods were sold at many times higher than they should have been.
The MEK said, “Therefore, the economic road ahead for the mullahs’ regime will lead to a dead-end and escalating social tensions that bear dangerous potentials for the regime’s future. This undeniable reality has kept many senior regime officials awake at night.”
