The infighting between factions has been exposed in the media and websites, but most news headlines emphasize that the Iranian people are suffering under the burden of the fundamentalists on all levels as a result of the government’s corruption and mismanagement.
“Economists believe the country is currently facing many challenges, including structural inflation, low economic growth, coronavirus pandemic and lack of rapid vaccination, nuclear negotiations and sanctions, demographic window and employment problem, social security and pension funds, improving the business environment, water resources crisis, capital outflow, and privatization,” the Tabnak News Agency wrote on 23 May.
The rising inflation rate, which is causing everything from food to housing to become more unaffordable, is one of the primary economic concerns the Iranian people face.
According to the Sharq daily, this resulted in $1 trillion in stagnant capital in the housing sector, $650 billion in gold and coins, and $20 billion in the foreign currency market. They also mentioned that from March 2020 to March 2021, the point-to-point inflation rate is 48.7%.
“The current issue of Iranian society, especially on the eve of the elections, is the people’s livelihood,” the Arman daily reported. People are suffering hardships in their everyday life, and there is a labor shortage. Salaries, on the other hand, are continuously decreasing. The purchasing power of the people has plummeted.”
While politicians frequently try to blame economic problems on international sanctions, the media and economists are well aware that the underlying cause is institutionalized and systematic corruption.
“One of the issues today in the case of power outages is the issue of currency codes,” said economist Hossain Raghfar. Because of the low cost of electricity, China, India, Turkey, and Poland are mining bitcoin in Iran.
The mullahs have a plan named “Empowerment and Sustainability of the Social Security Organization,” but according to the ILNA, it “fundamentally changes” how pensions are calculated, decreases payments, and jeopardizes workers’ rights.
In a meeting of economic activists with Mohsen Rezaei, one of the presidential contenders on 1 June, the head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Gholam Hossein Shafei, stated:
“Fortunately, in this period, all candidates’ approaches are economic in nature. It should be mentioned, however, that we have seen this before.”
“Today, it is embarrassing that the Iranian economy’s share of the global economy has halved compared to 40 years ago,” the head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce stated, “but we do not compare ourselves to the world.” All of this is the outcome of empty promises.
In an interview with ISNA, lawyer Kambiz Norouzi claimed as per the Khabar Khoy website on 1 June, that the Parliamentary Judiciary Commission’s plan to “ban officials from leaving Iran after the end of their responsibilities” does not demonstrate the fight against corruption, but rather the depth of corruption in the country.
The elements of rent-seeking management corruption have become so complicated, widespread, structured, and deep that such plans have been used to resist it.”
MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook)
and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube
