Economy

Iranwire – The Iran-Afghanistan border has been closed since Taliban overran Kabul in September. Since then thousands of activists, members of the media, ex-officials and ordinary citizens have fled the country by any means possible. Those without visas – and who didn’t secure a coveted seat on the international evacuation flights last month – have now largely resorted to the …

Iranwire – Are the Chinese coming to Iran to build housing? This was the question raised on Tuesday, October 12 after in a series of interviews conducted by Iranian media with members of the Parliamentary Development Committee. Iqbal Shakeri, a member of the Iranian parliament’s Civic Commission, announced that talks on a proposed mass housing project had opened between Iran’s Ministry of …

Iranwire- Tehran province could face a serious gas shortage over the winter months, the deputy governor for civil affairs has warned. In an announcement on Monday, Abdolreza Cheraghali said the province could be down by as much of 150 million cubic meters of natural gas, but “the necessary planning has been done for autumn and winter” to deal with any issues that …

Iranwire – A recent report by the Statistical Center of Iran has put the unemployment rate across Iran at 9.6 percent this summer: an 0.1 percent increase on the same period last year. Also this season, though, the overall labor force participation rate – generally a better indicator of the country’s economic health – stood at just 41.1 percent: a decline of …

iranwire – Nasir moved to Tehran with his wife and child four years ago in a bid to find work. Because of droughts, it was no longer possible for him to run a farm and work his father’s land. Now he works as a driver’s assistant on heavy and plant machinery. When the family first came to Tehran, conditions were a …

Al-Monitor – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has been making headlines recently with comments on when the nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna will resume. Rather than giving exact dates, he appears to be enjoying the spotlight and attention afforded his position given the international focus on the paused negotiations. During a television interview Oct. 3, Amir-Abdollahian said Iran “is …

VOA – Mehdi Dolatyari watched with dread in recent months as once-affordable goods at his central Tehran supermarket soared out of reach for his customers. Iranians who previously bought sacks of staple foods at the store now struggle to scrape together enough for meals, as the country’s currency sinks to new lows against the dollar. “Rice is awfully expensive,” Dolatyari …

Iranwire – Residential property prices continue to rise in Tehran and other Iranian cities, with renters hit particularly hard. According to a recent report by the Central Bank, average rents in the capital have risen by an eye-watering 42.8 percent since September 2020, and by 45.7 percent across the country. The average cost of buying of a residential property in Tehran meanwhile increased …

Al-Arabia – Venezuela has agreed to a key contract to swap its heavy oil for Iranian condensate that it can use to improve the quality of its tar-like crude, with the first cargoes due this week, five people close to the deal said. As the South American country seeks to boost its flagging oil exports in the face of US …

Iranwire – Documents received by IranWire has shown that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017, provided the Intelligence Unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-IU) with no fewer than 23 parcels of land and property in the Iranian capital to be used as “safe houses”. The project, codenamed “Martyr Shateri”, involved the IRGC-IU’s …