Economy

Iran-HRM – Iran’s unemployment rate indicates university graduates are the biggest unemployed population in the country. The number of unemployed graduates in the fall of 2018 increased from 37 percent to 40 percent.

Al-Monitor – Iran has for years had to get creative to conduct financial transactions and fight off increasing economic isolation stemming from sanctions. First there were multilateral restrictions imposed by world powers and now unilateral sanctions reimposed by the United States after President Donald Trump abandoned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May 2018. What Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called the “art …

Radiofarda – The chairman of Iranian parliament’s economic commission says that $3.5 billion dollars of cheap foreign currency was handed out to importers, but nothing has been brought to the country.

RFL/RE – OPEC says Iran’s crude oil production declined about 1.04 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 2.769 mb/d in December from early 2018.

Radiofarda – The Chairman of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Asadollah Asgaroladi, who is one of the country’s top businessmen has stopped exporting from Iran in the past two months due to payment problems.

Radiofarda – Iranian official news agency IRNA quoted an “EU spokesperson” as having said “on the condition of anonymity” that a European special trade mechanism to help Iran “is about to become operational.”

Iran-HRM – Ministry of Health raised alarm bells regarding prevalence of malnutrition in Iran’s southern port city of Chabahar.

Al-Monitor – The recent resignation of Iran’s minister of health, Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, led to many speculations. Officially, insufficient allocations in the next Iranian year (beginning March 21) was cited as the reason, but commentators also referred to factional infighting within the Hassan Rouhani administration as well as shifting interests as a result of renewed sanctions. One hint emerged when a video …

Radiofarda – A Grand Ayatollah has argued that the government is indebted to Qom a city where tens of thousands of young religious students are trained to become clergymen and has demanded more money in the midst of an economic crisis.

Radiofarda – The past decade in Iran has witnessed a surge in the number of startups, larger Internet companies, and digital-service providers.