Economy

Al-Monitor – A significant recent development in Iran’s attempts to liberalize the country’s investment climate was the announcement by Defense Minister Ali Hatami that military organizations have been tasked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to divest from “nonrelated” economic activities. Al-Monitor recently discussed the implications of this instruction, especially the fact that it will be difficult to find buyers …

Al-Monitor – When President Hassan Rouhani presented his administration’s budget proposal on Dec. 10, he gave a controversial speech on the parliament floor about corruption, which many observers believe played a contributing factor to the protests that rocked Iran. While Rouhani may have hoped the speech would garner public support for his economic plan after parliament rejected his general budget …

PauvandNews – The number of Chinese tourists visiting Iran in 2017 fell short of expectations as just 80,000 of the total 100,000,000 outbound Chinese passengers traveled to Iran last year.

PayvandNews – The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against Iran’s tuman has had another hike, rising from 3,700 tumans to the dollar in March 2017 to 4,700 tumans to the dollar in January this year. As in the past when there was a marked drop in the value of the national currency, Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seyf tried to …

RFL/RE – With some Iranians still hopping mad about state spending on religious institutions and foreign military ventures, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has green-lighted the siphoning of $2.5 billion from a currency-reserve fund to boost military spending.

Al-Monitor – Despite reports that Iran’s foreign minister had canceled a scheduled trip to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum, Tehran says he never planned to participate in this year’s summit. On Jan. 21, Reuters said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had canceled his trip to Davos. In response, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi denied these news stories, …

PayvandNews – Police in Tehran have shut down several currency exchange shops and arrested a number of money changers suspected of being behind a recent turmoil in exchange rates. They intervened after the plunge of the Iranian rial which has dropped to around 45,000 against the US dollar from 37,700 in mid-2017, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday. It said …

PayvandNews  – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears in the wake of recent anti-government protests to have put his weight behind President Hasan Rouhani’s repeated calls for reduced military and Revolutionary Guards involvement in the economy. Mr. Khamenei signalled his support by ordering the military and the Guards to start divesting from commercial holdings and businesses not related to …

Al-Monitor – In the aftermath of the recent protests in Iran, public announcements about a concerted effort to get the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian army (Artesh) to divest from the economy seem to signal that President Hassan Rouhani remains firmly committed to his agenda. Indeed, unlike the past — when civil unrest was quickly assumed by …

AP — Iran’s supreme leader has ordered the Revolutionary Guard to loosen its hold on the economy, the country’s defense minister says, raising the possibility that the paramilitary organization might privatize some of its vast holdings.