Economy

Radiofarda – Chinese customs data for the first three months of 2020 show an increase in both exports to and imports from the Persian Gulf despite a 6.8 percent contraction of Beijing’s GDP brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The resilience of China’s trade relations with the Persian Gulf states, despite pandemic-related disruptions, indicates the potential for Beijing to further enhance its influence in …

Radiozamaneh – Between 1 May 2019 and 1 May 2020, unpaid wages, layoffs, and unemployment were the most recurring labor news in Iran. Zamaneh Media has published its second annual labor report which gives an overview of the situation of Iranian workers and labor issues in the past year. HEPCO workers protest in Arak, Iran in Sept 2019. The second …

Radiofarda – The Iranian government is planning to offer its shares in three major Iranian banks and two insurance companies for sale at the Tehran Stock Market. This is part of the President Hassan Rouhani administration’s attempt to make up for the budget deficit caused by a catalogue of problems. These include U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and international …

RFL/RE – The United States has called on the European Union to place sanctions on individuals and entities working on Iran’s missile programs after Tehran said it successfully launched a military satellite. Washington also called on all countries to extend the United Nations conventional-arms embargo on Iran, saying the launch was proof the country’s space program was “neither peaceful nor …

Radiofarda – The latest figures released by China’s customs show imports from Iran dropped 52.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020, reaching an all-time low of $1.8 billion. China released its trade figures on Friday April 24, showing its exports to Iran grew by 16 percent reaching over $2.1 billion, in the same quarter compared with 2019. The main …

Radiofarda – The Head of Iran’s Tax Organization on Friday said the government’s tax revenues will drastically shrink in the current Iranian year as a result of the coronavirus epidemic and closure of businesses. Omid-Ali Parsa told Tasnim news agency in the best possible case only 1,400 trillion rials ($33.2 billion) of the projected 1,800 trillion rials ($42.7 billion) of …

observers.france24.com – Iran, like many other countries hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, has closed schools and universities and prioritised online learning. But in a country where there is widespread poverty and some regions have no internet coverage at all, some students are locked out of virtual classrooms. A teacher who works in a poor neighbourhood in Iran told the FRANCE …

Radiofarda – Amid a steep fall in global oil prices, the Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani claimed on Wednesday that Iran’s losses would be “much less” than other producers. Given that Iran’s daily oil exports have dropped from 2.5 million barrels a day before the U.S. sanctions to about 140,000 barrels a day, Rouhani’s remarks may be convincing at first …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has tried to put a brave face on the latest setback to hit the regime, claiming that Iran is unlikely to suffer as much as other countries from the oil price drop because it is less reliant than others on crude exports. If that were truly the case, then Tehran would not be asking …

Al-Monitor – Iran is faced with very difficult choices in its current struggle to contain the health and economic fallout from COVID-19. There’s no doubt that unemployment remains the government’s key concern, and to get people back to work, authorities are prepared to accept public health risks. In fact, to underline the dimensions of the challenge, on April 11 government …