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Iran: Government corruption and growing misery

Analyzing by PMOI/MEK

Iran, February 27, 2021—Not a day goes by without hearing news about increasing poverty among the Iranian people, the growing economic gap among the rich and poor, and the looting of the people’s resources and wealth by the Iranian regime’s leaders.

In this devastated economy, providing basic food items such as cucumbers, tomatoes, eggs, butter, etc., has become a challenge for the majority of the people, especially poor families.

Iran's economy is constantly in inflation and recession, and the national income is decreasing year by year, food and life necessities are becoming more expensive day by day.

"In the housing sector, inflation is 100 percent. The change in prices in the field of cars and home appliances and the life necessities has grown from 50 to 100 percent," said an expert to the state-run daily Iran, on Feb 15.

Regime president Hassan Rouhani and his government are trying to blame sanctions for the unbridled inflation and high prices, which is completely wrong. Even government experts deny the claim, as the Iran daily added: "In this study (study of inflation and high prices), sanctions should not be included because we have been sanctioned in the past years and the situation has been more difficult than it is now. However, this year, the situation was not such as to blame the events on sanctions. The year that is coming to an end is unfavorable in terms of economic management when the exchange rate and inflation is in such state."

The regime's experts and media use the terms "mismanagement, bad management, inadequate management,  etc. in the economic field" when referring to the government’s corrupt policies, such as inflate the stock market balloon and emptying people's pockets in the stock market, financing the budget deficit through increasing the prices of people's necessities, increasing the exchange rate, printing banknotes and borrowing from bank resources, wasting billions of dollars of currency under the pretext of imports and other policies that have led to the current situation.

"Statistics that show the poor economic situation of most strata show that unemployment and inflation and other indicators that determine the economic situation, portray the negative and bad situation of all important economic indicators. Economic growth statistics show that we have experienced one of the most difficult years possible,” according to the Vice President Chamber of Commerce of Iran and China posted, per Iran daily on Feb 15.

In another article titled "Victims of double-digit inflation," the Iran daily, quoting another expert, who called the effects of inflation and rising prices of goods on the lives of employees and workers and other sections of society "destructive" and added: "On the one hand, high inflation shrinks the livelihood basket of these groups of people. In order to balance their income and expenses, these people are forced to remove some goods and services from their basket, and even items such as meat and milk are gradually removed as inflation intensifies. High inflation, on the other hand, causes these groups, which make up the bulk of society, to lose their purchasing power for capital goods such as housing, cars, and even durable consumer goods such as home appliances, making buying them an unattainable dream. The continuation of this situation causes the low-income and middle classes of society to bear a lot of pressure. In addition, their hope for the future is dashed."

In such circumstances of the country's economy and the people’s poor living conditions, the misery index rises year by year.

According to a Feb 16 report by the state run Hamdeli daily, "The current state of living, which is closely linked to poverty and misery, is not good these days; This can be understood from the poverty line that reached 100 million rials in Tehran and the minimum wage that did not even reach 30 million rials this year. According to expert statistics and estimates, the misery index has gone through a worrying trend over the past four years. An examination of this index over the past few years indicates that the misery index has been accompanied by more jumps. Farshad Momeni, an economist says:

‘In recent years, Iran has been one of the top four countries in the world in terms of misery index, and after the three countries of Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbabwe, it is in fourth place and at its worst.

The devaluation of the national currency (rial) in recent years has been the most important factor in including Iran's name in this list. According to official data, the misery index reached 19.8 percent in 2017, jumped to 39 percent in 2018, and reached 45.5 percent in 2019. Estimates show that this index is at 70 percent this year.’"

To put this in perspective, the average income of a labor family is 15 to 20 million rials. The poverty line, however, is 100 million rials, which is at least five times what workers earn.

This level of theft of people's property has led to the unjust distribution of wealth and increased class divisions.

Due to the unjust distribution of wealth and widespread poverty among the majority of the people, regime experts these days are concerned that the people’s growing frustration with the injustice and discrimination that have been inflicted on them will lead to further nationwide uprisings.

They explicitly acknowledge the existence of objective conditions for a revolution and popular uprising, with expressions such as the “people's tolerance threshold is exhausted,” “the people's patience is running thin,” and so on, and they admit the growing hatred and anger of the people towards the regime.

It is not without reason that Masih Mohajeri, the editor of the Jomhuriyeh Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper, warns the leaders of the regime: "Fear the day when the people are fed up and all of you will be held accountable."

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