Over the past half-century, Iran has experienced a devastating economy that has destroyed the homes and livelihoods of many of its people. Amid this, the crisis-inducing and perpetuating policies of the regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as the successor to regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, have been the primary drivers of the most destructive economic crises in the country. Suppression of progressive forces domestically and the export of terrorism and fundamentalism abroad have led to a horrifying spiral that has eradicated Iranians’ living conditions, productivity, and welfare.
Despite the weakening of religious fascism in recent years, the resulting crises persist. Today, the Iranian people must either endure polluted air filled with heavy fuel oil and substandard gasoline, resigning themselves to a slow death, or suffer through exhausting blackouts. To afford a simple meal, such as an omelet, one must buy tomatoes priced at 700,000 rials per kilogram. Even state media have admitted the policy failures of the past fifty years. These policies have led to widespread poverty, technological decline, low-quality production, capital flight, rising unemployment, and inflation.
On November 16, Jahan-e Sanat news website reported, “There is serious contention within Iran’s ruling political institutions over which political ideology, faction, or economic approach has played the primary role in creating the storm-tossed economy… The reality is that various governments collectively cooked up the stew that is Iran’s economy, and there’s no escaping this narrative. Broadly speaking, one could argue that the heavy, enduring shadow of politics—especially Iran’s foreign policy—has been the main factor behind the current economic situation.”
Seventeen Years of Investment Stagnation
Recent studies by the Majlis Research Center reveal that since 2007, investment in Iran’s industrial sector has been declining, plunging the sector into a phase of investment stagnation.
On November 5, the state-run Etemad newspaper wrote, “Apart from negative events such as economic sanctions and the shock from the COVID-19 pandemic, an unfavorable business environment, inconsistent and unstable economic policies, increased government interference in industries, and similar factors have caused a 17-year recession in Iran’s industrial sector” (Etemad newspaper, November 5, 2024).
The Cost of Denial, Concealment, and Refusal to Face Reality
Investment stagnation is just one example, while the energy imbalance crisis, now widely discussed, has been denied for years. Policies of denial and concealing shortcomings inevitably lead to failure.
On November 12, the state-run Setareh Sobh newspaper wrote,” If there had been room for open media and free criticism, labeled as ‘blackening,’ we wouldn’t be here. Escalating crises in many environmental areas, sinkholes and land subsidence, exaggerated claims of self-sufficiency in food products, and disregarding expert opinions… have brought us to a point we wish we had never reached.”
The Crossroad of Misery or Warmongering
Recently, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Abdolnaser Hemmati, said that the average economic growth over the past thirty years has not exceeded 3%, with much of this illusory growth dependent on the sale of the country’s oil resources, imposing high inflation on Iran’s impoverished population.
On November 5, Basirat news website wrote, “All expert assessments predict continued low economic growth and high inflation in our country this year and next. From the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which in their latest reports forecast 3% to 3.5% growth and 29% to 32% inflation for the current and upcoming years, to the Majlis Research Center, which predicts 2.5% to 2.8% growth and 34% to 31% inflation for the years 2024 and 2025.”
The news of capital flight (approximately $16 billion in the past two to three years), smuggling (about $31 billion), and corruption (ranking 149th out of 180 countries) is repetitive.
On November 5, the state-run Shargh newspaper wrote, “We are now in an extremely critical situation where risky decisions not only lead to the failure of economic policies and development goals but also painfully impact the frail and weakened body of a society in which one-third lives below the absolute poverty line, and the middle class is evaporating. Capital flights are horrifying. And… a fundamental question arises: Are the first and foremost duties of governance to provide welfare and comfort for the people and advance the country’s development, or not? The choice lies between reducing poverty and increasing social wealth or adhering to specific ideological ideas and aspirations.”
It is evident that the regime’s response is nothing but increased poverty, misery, and repression of millions of people, along with the plundering of the nation’s resources and assets for warmongering and exporting terrorism.