Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, January 22, 2021—Mohsen Hashemi, the head of Tehran’s City Council, warned on January 16 about the country’s worsening economic situation in 2021. “In 2021, the country’s economy is going toward a Venezuela-like situation,” said Hashemi, who was quoted by the state-run Khabar Fouri news website. The reality is that, under the rule of the mullahs, Iran is facing a total collapse and destruction of the economy.
In recent years, Iran’s national currency, the rial, has dropped to a seventh of its previous value. Meanwhile, skyrocketing prices, high inflation, growing unemployment, and shrinking purchase power has turned the people’s lives into misery.
Also, a wave of mass migration, even to Iran’s neighboring countries, is another facet of the exacerbating economic crisis.
In this regard, Bahram Salavati, director of the regime's immigration observatory, said: "Although in the past, the focus was more on the departure of the talented, the educated, and arts and sports elites from the country, now the desire to leave Iran is rapidly spreading to different social classes. Extreme exchange rate fluctuations, inflation, a severe economic record, and rising unemployment, combined with frustration and social desperation and other problems, have made immigration from Iran much stronger than the global average." (Tabnak website, December 29, 2020).
The widespread poverty of the people is the result of the painful fact that the country's economy is entirely in the hands of the government or institutions such as the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the Khomeini Executive Order Foundation, and the Mostazafan Foundation, and the Martyr Foundation, who are affiliated to the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
“Unlike the free economies in the world, which are in the hands of the private sector, in our country more than 80 percent of economic enterprises are in the hands of the government. The private sector has the least influence on the gross domestic product (GDP) at micro and macro levels. We see that today's negative and highly harmful and anti-social indicators, in the shadow of the wrong economic policies of the twelfth government, have inflicted rampant inflation on our economy, and such actions will lead the us to a catastrophic situation like in Venezuela,” wrote the state-run daily Jahene Sanat on November 30, 2020.
Also, many other regime’s experts believe that more than 60 percent of the country’s economy is under the control of Khamenei and IRGC-affiliated institution that don’t report to anyone.
Every year, these institutions swallow a huge portion of the government budget, sometimes rivaling and exceeding those of key ministries.
The daily Setareh Sobh wrote on December 8, 2020, “One of the subjects of this year's budget bill is the share of certain institutions. 43 religious organizations will receive 72.5 trillion rials in next year's budget. The budget of some of these institutions is many times the share of some ministries or large organizations in the country.”
The Jamaran News Agency wrote that the budget of 29.16 trillion rials for the State Television is more than the development budget of 20 provinces.
Also, Tejarat News website wrote that the budget of 10 trillion rials for religious seminary centers is more than the total budget of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Emergency Organization. Also, the budget of 6.5 trillion rials of the Supreme Council of Seminaries is five times more than the budget of the Ministry of Science. "While the budget of some of these institutions is increased by 150 percent, the budget of some important sectors, such as the Ministry of Education, has been reduced by one third,” the website wrote.
This is while the budget for the IRGC and looting foundations such as Martyrs Foundation, Mostazafan Foundation, and Housing Foundation is not even mentioned. The looting of the country’s wealth by Khamenei-affiliated institutions have destroyed the economy which has led to 96 percent poverty.
Even Ali Rabiei, spokesperson of the government of regime president Hassan Rouhani, acknowledged that the regime’s policies have worsened the economic situations. “We needed to make decisions as the economic situation has caused the people’s tables to become emptier than before. Today, some discuss that our decisions have led to the expansion of economic rent,” Rabiei said on January 12, according to the official IRNA news agency.
This is how Iran has become one the poorest countries in the world while it is among the richest in terms of national resources. The regime’s institutionalized corruption and looting are the main cause of the economic disaster and collapse.
