Economy

iranintl – Iran’s manufacturing industry is in decline as reports attribute plummeting sales to a substantial drop in demand hitting businesses both domestic and export markets. According to a report by Iran’s leading economic newspaper Donyaye Eghtesad (World of Economy), production-related issues such as raw material shortages and difficulties in securing foreign currency, have led to the suspension of many production units. …

iranintl – Iran has imposed nationwide bread rations with penalties for bakers breaking the new rules amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the birth of the Islamic Republic. Eqtesad100, a prominent Iranian news website, scrutinized the contradictory statements from government officials and bakers in a detailed report on Sunday. The situation became more complex with reports circulating about a directive from …

iranintl – Interim Friday Prayer Imam of Tehran, Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, stated that the government has not returned $100 billion it withdrew from Iran’s National Development Fund (NDF). This is tantamount to two-thirds of Iran’s aggregate reserve fund which was estimated to be as high as $150 billion. “Even the resources granted by the NDF to the private sector have not …

iranintl – Media reports have highlighted Iran’s renewed interest in pursuing FATF membership, and recently, the Ministry of Economy sent a protest letter to the financial watchdog. The ministry argued that Iran’s 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with world powers removed all sanctions, and Iran should not be economically penalized by the FATF. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a …

Iranwire – Drug shortages continue to loom over Iran’s healthcare system, mainly due to mismanagement by the Islamic Republic’s authorities.  The director-general of the Food and Drug Administration, Mohammad Peykanpour, disclosed on January 12 that 99 drugs currently face shortages in the country.  He attributed 31 of these shortages to a lack of foreign currency for imports. Peykanpour further revealed …

iranintl – As cases of economic corruption continue to make headlines in Iran, more pundits are speaking out about how the prevailing system makes corruption inevitable. In an interview published Sunday, former chief of Iran’s central bank Valiollah Seif said the biggest challenge facing the country is economic corruption, mainly due to a government controlled system that that hands out …

RFL/RE – More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a “dark fleet” of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran’s economy afloat — a dependency that could also sink it. The fleet has grown steadily over the past five years, delivering Iranian crude to China as the countries …

iranintl – Iran’s Statistical Center recently announced a decline in the country’s unemployment rate to 7.6 percent this fall from 10.6 in the same period in 2019. The report didn’t explain the reason for the decline, but, a comparison of the new numbers for the labor force (employed or seeking jobs) with four years ago indicates that in fact, 3.6 …

iranintl – China’s oil trade with Iran has stalled as Tehran withholds shipments, demanding higher prices from its top client, Reuters quoted refinery and trade sources as saying.  The cutback in Iranian oil, which makes up some 10 percent of China’s crude imports and hit a record in October, could support global prices and squeeze profits at Chinese refiners. Early last month Iranian …

iranintl – Iranians, predominantly dependent on mobile data, are outraged by the government’s recent approval of price hikes, with many alleging corruption. “Where there is monopoly, collusion takes shape between [operators] and the government, and they scam the people in any way that they wish, same as in the case of car manufacturers, internet taxis, pharmaceutical import companies, and many …