In a speech on March 20, 2025, Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, “This same liquidity that is in the hands of the people, when some spend it on gold coins, land, housing, foreign currency, it creates problems for the country.”
Khamenei, who leads the corrupt regime that is at the core of Iran’s economic problems, blamefully pointed the finger at the people for the unprecedented and terrifying volume of “liquidity.”
But what is the truth?
This enormous liquidity, now used as a pretext to blame the people for the regime’s corrupt practices, is the result of large-scale, repeated printing of unbacked money by the regime. According to the regime’s own experts, this unprecedented money printing is one of the main reasons the Iranian economy has been driven to the brink of collapse—yet now, Khamenei blames the Iranian people for it.
The statistics further reveal this disastrous wrongdoing. According to the Central Bank, by the end of Persian calendar year 1400 (March 2022), the volume of liquidity had reached 483.24 quadrillion rials (source: Khabar Online – May 2022). By November 2022, it had grown by 20% to 580.6 rials (IRNA – February 2023).
The trend of money printing and increasing liquidity continued, and by January 2025, the volume of liquidity had reached the staggering amount of 972.3 quadrillion rials due to unbacked money printing (Tejarat News – February 2025). State media reported: “Liquidity growth hit a new record in February 2025” (Didban-e Eghtesad – February 2025).
Even regime-affiliated economists predicted the continuation of this plundering and destructive trend in the new year, writing: “Liquidity will grow by 30% and reach about 1,350 quadrillion rias by February 2026” (Donya-e Eghtesad – February 2025).
This liquidity, caused by the continuous printing of unbacked money, has been and remains one of the main causes of runaway inflation, destroying the people’s purchasing power and driving the impoverished classes into utter destitution. This disaster was reflected in warning headlines by regime media in the final days of 2025:
- “Price shock alarms in 2025”
- “A decade of liquidity… foreshadows a price acceleration crisis next year”
- “The snake of Iran’s economy on the 2025 horizon”
But what has this mafia done to Iran’s economy with such a massive volume of unbacked money?
Broadly, three main consequences can be highlighted:
First: They have destroyed production and economic infrastructure to the point that in Iran’s collapsed economy, nothing remains capable of generating “real liquidity” (with actual backing).
Second: Real national assets and liquidity have been spent astronomically and without oversight to fund terrorism exports, proxy wars, and terrorist entities such as the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Third: Given the lack of backed money to pay salaries and expenses due to the above two points, they print unbacked money to temporarily pacify people and prevent social unrest—but inflation caused by this printing quickly takes that money back from people’s pockets and tables.
The result?
Each year, a massive flood of liquidity enters the system, causing two catastrophic consequences:
First: Repeated and unprecedented inflation increases
Second: Continuous depreciation of the rial
Now, however, the cauldron of corruption—whose product is widespread poverty and people’s unprecedented anger—has boiled over. The threat of a social explosion due to this corruption and poverty has become so serious that even regime media nervously headlined: “Are you not afraid of a hunger revolution?!” (Jomhouri Eslami – December 2024). Meanwhile, institutions linked to Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have seized control of Iran’s entire economy and are responsible for this situation. Yet Khamenei, fearful of a rebellion by the hungry masses, tried both to deceitfully distance himself by scapegoating his own appointed government, claiming that “the leadership does not interfere in economic planning,” and to blame the people for the terrifying and destructive liquidity, asserting that “this same liquidity in people’s hands… causes problems.”