Presidential Candidates Blast Iran’s Economic Policies but Offer Few Solutions

Iranwire – Even in the chilliest of pre-election atmospheres, the televised presidential candidates’ debates are usually nominally interesting. But last Friday, the first debate of a scheduled seven brought nothing but disillusionment to Iranian economists.

The candidates had nothing but the most general and scattered of observations to make on Iran’s ongoing financial crisis. They were united in criticizing the status quo, and in blaming their rivals for the present disastrous situation, but had little to offer in the way of solutions.  

Any Persian-speaking foreigners who tuned into the debate will likely have presumed that these people had stood outside of Iran’s corridors of power for the last 40 years – as if they were not, respectively, the head of the judiciary, the last governor of Iran’s Central Bank, the secretary of the Expediency Council, a member of the Iranian parliament’s presidium, a former vice-president, a former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and a well-established MP – so harshly critical were they of the manner in which the country has been run.

The first quarter of the more than three-hour debate was marked by the competitors ignoring the questions put to them. They appeared to be there in order to settle their accounts with each other, instead of laying out their manifestos to the public. In fairness, some of the questions were tangential ones not directly related to the duties of the head of state – or else so broad that more than the allotted three to four minutes would be needed to address them properly. Nonetheless, opportunities to connect with viewers were missed.

What professional economists and ordinary Iranians alike expected from the debate was, at the very least, some time dedicated to discussing macroeconomic issues. But even when the conversation did touch on inflation, economic growth or unemployment, it was largely reduced to either ironic or half-hearted remarks with few references to concrete data.

Some candidates, in response to questions on the economy, alluded to their having a comprehensive plan that would be updated – in book form or on their website – in the weeks to come. This was a useful means of avoiding these complex questions during the debate itself.

In turn, the second half of the debate was so uninspiring that some viewers were left with the impression that Abdolnaser Hemmati and Mohsen Mehr Alizadeh had been warned off making any further critical remarks toward Ebrahim Raeesi. Alireza Zakani and Mohsen Rezaei, however, were allowed to continue with a barrage of sarcastic remarks directed at Hemmati.

During the debate, the candidates did manage to make a few economic promises. But for the most part they were not compelling enough to provoke reactions from the others, and did little to enrich the atmosphere. They drew instead on unsubstantiated claims and gross statistical errors, offering little to no food for thought for serious economists.

For the record, however, the collected economy-related statements made by each of the candidates in the first debate are presented below.

Ebrahim Raeesi

• “We must do something to make the producers, who were thoughtfully present in production and whose production is in trouble, to make it more attractive for them, and at the same time, to reduce the attractiveness of unproductive economic affairs.”
• “People are not looking for economic disputes but they want a powerful manager to come and line up experts to resolve problems.”
• “What disaster did the 4,200-toman currency create for the country, and how many cases did it produce for the judiciary? We have to move towards a single currency rate and we have to manage the exported currency.”
• “Unfortunately, one of the people’s most serious problems is inflation. The prices of basic commodities have risen tremendously.”
• “One of the country’s serious problems is land speculation; land has become capital and a trading tool instead of being used for agriculture and housing.”

Mohsen Rezaei

• “The relationship between the government and the economy, and the relationship between the economy and the people, is not regulated. The government puts its hand in the pockets of the people.”
• “I will place the issue of home-based businesses, housing, and women’s employment on the agenda.”
• “I will use my legal authority to transfer power from the center to the provinces.”
• “Rouhani’s government has been the blackest of all time. Not only did it not open the outer locks, but it also closed the inner doors.”
• “I will guarantee a subsidy of 450,000 tomans ($20) for 40 million people. I will provide one million housing units through regenerating worn-out urban areas, compensate for stock market losses and conduct economic activities in accordance with the law.”

Abdolnasser Hemmati:

• “Our economy does not have the capacity to deliver on these promises. With these promises, candidates are practically talking about the distribution of poverty, not the distribution of wealth. We need economic reform.”
• “My main argument is the change of economic governance. For years, we handed over the country to politicians; for once, we have to leave the country to the economists, and have politics under the control of the economy.”
• “I do not agree with pre-established prices. I believe that the government should not get involved in minor issues such as determining a price for anything. The government must be involved in infrastructure. Price is a symptom of liquidity; we have to solve the issue of liquidity.”
• “I strongly support the independence of the Central Bank. Our problem is with the budget structure. Costs are rising every day; this is becoming the monetary base of the central bank.”
• “If we do not make the right choices today, we will still be distributing 4,200-toman [dollars] in 20 years’ time… and lagging behind our neighbors.”

Mohsen Mehr Alizadeh:

• “Nearly 50 percent of the people live below the poverty line. This is no good for the honorable people of Iran. Today, seven million heads of households do not have a fixed income and need financial assistance.”
• “I will work on incentivizing production, [through] tax exemptions on production and directing capital to production as a principle. I have also strongly emphasized the creation of jobs and environmental tourism.”
• “In principle, the government should not invest; rather, it should pave the way for private sector investment. We have to open up certain channels to import money into the country.”
• “Today, the country is facing more than 50 crises and there is no consensus on the way to solve the problems. The official tribunes have become a place of fighting instead of solving the problems of the people.”
• “The smoothness of bureaucracy and the absence of corruption and rents are the main pre-conditions for foreign investment. The most important factor is having no tension at the international and domestic levels.”

Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi:

• “If we can control inflation as the root cause of suffering, we can preserve the value of the national currency.”
• “One of the main issues is inflation and rising prices. We have planned for inflation to fall to below five percent in four years.”
• “We also predicted the family credit fund and considered 500 million tomans ($22,700) of marriage loans for young couples.”
• “We are witnessing a large and intertwined import mafia that threatens production, benefitting from various rents from cheap foreign currency, monopolies, and imports.”
• “Structures are depriving and financial resources are improperly distributed among different deciles and regions, resulting in rural migration and the loss of agricultural jobs.”

Alireza Zakani:

• “Banks make money without the supervision of the Central Bank. We now have super-debtors: eleven super-debtors owing 90,000 billion tomans (US $4 billion).”
• “The basis of production in my government will be nine economic drivers including oil, gas, petrochemicals and attention to infrastructure.”
• “The one-dimensional economic program is useless. Our program is economic, cultural, social, managerial, political and security-oriented, and having a foreign policy.”
• “Transformation in the field of economic management, production, digital governance, decentralization and the decisive fight against administrative and economic corruption are among my plans.”
• “Our only job is to remove the government from a position in the face of the people to a position of serving the people.”

Saeed Jalili:

• “In the mining, agriculture, oil, gas and electricity sectors, we can bring about a leap in the country’s foreign exchange earnings; there are no excuses. In these areas, twice the oil revenue can be earned.”
• “One of the problems in our country is the sale of raw minerals. By creating added value, we can have foreign currency and create jobs.”
• “One of the most important obstacles to production is financing. If we create two trillion tomans’ worth of capital daily, how can people have a problem with financing? Where does this money go?”
• “We have said we will create 100,000 jobs in the first year, 126,000 in the second year and 253,000 in the fourth year.”
• “Some of our problems are not structural; they are related to the country’s political culture and not this or that faction.”

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