Regime’s Continuous Patter of Lies Over Iran’s Disastrous Financial Crisis

Regardless of the fact that the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, declared the New Persian Year of 1400 to be a year of “production, support, and removing barriers,” Iran’s economy is in terminal decline as a result of the regime’s systemic corruption.

According to Tejarat news article, Farshad Fatemi, one of the regime’s economists, “Since the future of the coronavirus outbreak is unclear, and at least in the first six months, the [entire system] will be involved in [sham presidential] elections, and the economic policy-making sector will be slow. Next year does not seem to be a bright year in terms of economic variables.”

While the regime claims that inflation is above 30%, professor Steve Hanke from John Hopkins University, projected in December that Iran’s actual inflation rate is 97.52 percent.

“In the Statistical Center of Iran’s [month of] Azar in [the Persian year of] 1399 report, Iran’s Inflation is 30.5% a year. FALSE. By utilizing purchasing power parity and high-frequency data, I accurately measure Iran’s inflation to be 97.52%. That’s more than three times the official BOGUS rate!” shared on social media.

The regime seeks to minimize the situation by announcing misleading figures for economic indicators such as inflation. Meanwhile, Khamenei calls the year without taking any action to remedy Iran’s financial crisis. Prof. Hanks reiterated this point, “Iran’s corrupt government produces corrupt ‘facts.’”

Former Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade Mehdi Ghazanfari informed the state-run Tasnim news agency on Monday, “If we are supposed to name the year, and the involved organizations give fabricated reports to make the situation look good, while people are waiting in long queues to buy poultry, it means we have not achieved anything.”

However, the regime’s mismanagement is not the only cause of Iran’s economic crisis. The regime’s institutionalized brutality and misguided policies are also to blame. In addition, contrary to what mullahs’ apologists say, Iran’s economic crisis is not triggered by sanctions.

According to Azar Mansouri, a senior member of the Union of Islamic Iran People Party, “naming a year without its requirements in consecutive years has caused these names to take on more of a propaganda and slogan role and sometimes become a contradiction, and the year 1400 is no exception to this rule.

Systematic corruption is a serious obstacle to increasing national capital. Therefore, we need serious, real, and legal reforms in the [regime] to combat and reduce it, not slogans.”

Despite the fact that Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime continues to spend billions of dollars on nuclear and missile programs.

The state-run Tasnim news agency reported on 15 March, “the unveiling ceremony of the new Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) naval missile city and the annexation of missile equipment to this force was held this morning, March 15, in the presence of IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, Brigadier General Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the IRGC Navy and a group of commanders.

According to our reporter, a large number of cruise and ballistic missile systems and missiles with various ranges were displayed in the naval missile city of the IRGC.”