Despite the claims of the Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi and his government officials to lower inflation and boost the economy, the Iranian people continue to suffer from the misery and hunger of empty baskets. The state-run newspaper “The state-run dailies and media are writing every day about inflation getting under control and promising even better days,” Jana Sanat wrote on February 10, 2022, concerning the regime’s empty promises. The citizens, on the other hand, continue to bear the brunt of the exorbitant costs.
“Simply said, Raisi’s government and his like-minded in the parliament promised to do something so that the people could earn a living. Now that the situation has changed, most Iranians would undoubtedly reply to Raisi, “Mr. Raisi, we regret asking for gold, have mercy and give us copper!”
According to state-run media, sugar, which is already in low supply, is one of the goods whose price has risen by 121 percent. According to the regime’s economic specialists, none of Iran’s commodities have become scarce, but the majority of the poor cannot afford them due to skyrocketing prices on open markets, whilst the wealthy minority, primarily regime loyalists, have no such problems.
“Sweet lemon has reached 300,000 rials per kilo today,” the state-run website Entekhab said on February 16, 2022, in reference to the increase in the price of fruit. Some businesses sell high-quality oranges and apples for 380,000 rials per kilogram. Apples, oranges, and tangerines have always cost no less than 250,000 rials per kilogram.
“With the recent wave of price hikes, turnips in Tehran fruit shops now cost more than 250,000 rials per kilogram, ordinary squash costs between 350,000 and 400,000 rials, and a kilogram of lemon costs moreover 200,000 rials.”The main cause of price increases is the regime’s officials’ corruption, which has devastated the country’s economy. The mafia of distribution and pricing, which sets outrageous prices for various commodities depending on their interests, reflects this corruption.
It has such a terrible effect that on February 13, 2022, the state-run news outlet Tasnim reported, “In the survey undertaken, 84,000 items in the country had a price jump of up to 120 percent.”The article then quoted the regime’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade, who boasted that “by the end of the year, there would be no increase in the price of products, especially basic goods for the people, and the administration underlines this.”
The termite-like corruption would not trash the country’s economy, and the regime mafia would not be the absolute rulers of the country’s economy and people’s livelihood if the economic situation could be rectified simply by issuing orders. In an article titled “Destruction of the Middle Class in Iran!” published on February 1, 2022, the state-run daily Eghtesad News underlined the implications of a failing economy, writing:
“The class system is one of the objective outcomes of the growth of poverty in any society. Due to our country’s recent economic and livelihood challenges, a wide variety of strata that were formerly categorized as middle class in Iranian society have now entered the circle of deprived classes.”
“When a country faces such a powerful middle class that can bring about two major political and social changes in less than a century, any change in the middle class will change the fate of Iranian society,” the regime wrote in explaining why it has decided to expand poverty in the country and keep people below the poverty line.
“That is why after the revolution, in order not to face new shocks, the Islamic Revolution tried to manipulate the middle class, to put pressure on it or to ignore it in the most optimistic case.”
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