Economy

Al-Arabia – Several protests erutped across Iranian cities on Saturday, with many protesters blocking main roads with their cars and burning tires while chanting “Death to the dictator,” a day after the government announced a surprise decision to ration and hike the price of petrol. One civilian was killed and other people injured in Iran’s Sirjan, the semi-official news agency …

RFL/RE – Iranians are blasting their government for rationing gas and greatly increasing its price, with many concerned that the move will lead to inflation and greater hardship in a country where so many people are struggling to make ends meet. The state-run National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said in an overnight announcement on November 15 that each motorist …

PayvandNews – The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has warned the people against engaging in fresh round of speculative trade of foreign currencies, saying a slight weakening of Iran’s rial over the past days is nothing to worry about. cartoon by Mohsen Zarifian Abdolnasser Hemmati said on Thursday that “nothing special” had happened with regard to the …

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have imposed rationing on gasoline purchases and have increased the price of fuel substantially as the economy continues to be hit by U.S. financial sanctions.The National Petroleum Products Distribution Company on November 14 said a 60-liter monthly limit of gasoline will be set on every private automobile and that prices will go up to about 12.7 …

Radiofarda – The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday added more than a dozen companies and individuals to its trade blacklist for allegedly providing material support to chemical and biological weapons activity in Syria and diverting U.S. items to Iran without authorization. The action from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security bars the firms and individuals from buying components from …

Radiofarda – Iran’s capital Tehran has been blanketed by heavy smug this week, forcing schools to shut down and hospitals have admitted many more cases of heart and respiratory emergencies. The head of Environment and Sustainable Development at Municipality of Tehran says air pollution costs the capital of Iran up to $2.6 billion per year. But other major cities, specially …

The share of crude oil in Iran’s next year budget (beginning March 21) has dropped to zero, Mehr news agency reported November 12. The report coincided with the Islamic Republic parliament’s closed-door session on Tuesday, debating ways to reduce the dependency of the country’s budget on oil revenues. The report, if confirmed, shows that Iran’s income from selling crude has …

Radiofarda – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says his country’s situation has never been as “difficult and complicated” as it is today. Rouhani admitted that U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports are making it difficult to run the affairs of the country. The remarks are in sharp contrast to Rouhani’s previous statements in which he portrayed a promising picture of the …

Al-Monitor – After years of delay, Iran’s parliament suddenly approved 331 articles of the first book of a massive trade reform bill in just one week in mid-September. This came as a surprise to many economic and legal analysts and raised concerns about the fate of the remaining four commercial code books awaiting lawmakers’ final verdict. To highlight some major disadvantages of the bill, it is …

Radiofarda – The United States will target shipping companies that are in breach of sanctions and aggressively enforce measures across the globe to clamp down on such practices, a top U.S. official said on Wednesday. In one of the biggest sanctions actions taken by the U.S. government since its crackdown on Iranian oil exports, Washington imposed sanctions on Chinese companies …