Economy

Iranwire – Iran has signed more than $16bn worth of oil contracts since the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi last summer, but won’t be disclosing information about them, the Minister of Oil has announced. Javad Oji made the remarks to IRNA news agency this morning as part of a comparison between the performance of the 13th government of the Islamic Republic and the Raisi …

Al-Monitor – Marking the occasion of the Iranian new year, or Nowruz, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed Iranians and discussed the focus of the country for the upcoming year. Khamenei officially themed the focus of the year “Production: Knowledge-based and job creating.” Discussing the previous year, Khamenei said that one of the important things that took place was …

RFL/RE – Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) last year urged the judiciary to issue travel bans against several oil officials for fear they could expose the “secret” tactics Tehran has used to evade U.S. sanctions and sell its oil, according to a leaked confidential document. The “highly confidential” IRGC document was leaked to the London-based Iran International television …

Iranwire – The Raisi administration’s 2022-23 budget bill has allocated more than 54.8 trillion tomans (US$13bn) to “maintaining public order and security”: 25 times the amount ring-fenced for environmental protection, and six times the budget for addressing the country’s urgent water crisis. Research by Iran Open Data found the IRGC’s Shahid Ebrahimi program, whose stated mission is to “strengthen security infrastructure”, had …

Al-Monitor – Middle Eastern sunflower oil imports could soon be affected by the Russian attack on Ukraine. Ukraine was the largest exporter of sunflower seed and the related safflower oil in 2019, accounting for 45.8% of global exports. Russia was second with 23.4% of the market. Iran was the fourth-largest importer of sunflower seed or safflower oil that year, accounting for 6.25% …

Al-Monitor – Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said his country is ready to serve as a regional safe route for natural gas and connect key producers to consumer markets. Speaking at a summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha Feb. 22, Raisi added that Iran’s energy strategy seeks to boost gas production and provide greater access to the regional nations. Iran possesses one …

Iran-HRM – In a new report, the American Heritage Foundation, a U.S. institution, reported a 4.8-step drop in Iran’s economic freedom index in 2021 compared to the year before. According to the report, published on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Iran ranks 170th out of 177 countries on the Economic Freedom Index with a score of 42.4. The Foundation rates countries …

RFL/RE – A leaked audio recording in which two former senior officials of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) discuss corruption that helps fund the powerful force and its secretive military operations abroad has shed light on infighting and graft that extends to the hierarchy of the country’s clerical regime. The implication in the recording, published in a wide-ranging exposé by …

Iranwire – A few days ago, Saeed Morad Abdevali, a world wrestling champion, announced he was currently spending his time cultivating wheat. He had no intention of going back to wrestling, he said, not as a competitor or as a coach or manager, despite the fact that he practices four times a week. “This year I planted wheat and I am busy with …

Iranwire – The number of people emigrating from Iran has reached alarming levels, putting an even greater strain on the country’s struggling economy. Although once it was primarily people working in high-level specialist professions leaving the country, the recent exodus appears to be among people working in vocational industries. “Studies show that people who did not meet previous immigration standards are now …