Iran’s absent Supreme Leader is begging employers to “avoid layoffs” as the nation’s economic woes continue to face pressure from the US blockade in rare public remarks — admitting that the nation is facing punishing economic conditions.
One taxi driver in Tehran admitted to a reporter this week that even eggs have become too expensive to afford.
With Iran’s currency, the rial, plummeting and inflation at more than 53%, Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf urged everyday citizens to buckle up as Tehran seeks to outlast the US on the “economic battlefield.”
“My request to all people is that you practice saving and be frugal,” Ghalibaf said in a statement.
Ghalibaf’s statement was echoed by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen in public since he was injured by Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war.
In a series of messages released on Telegram over the weekend, Khamenei asked Iranian employers to “avoid layoff as much as possible,” following reports of mass firings across the country, with some 3.5 million Iranians affected.
The leaders’ words ignore the reality on the ground as Iranians contend with the rial losing half its value in the past year, falling to record low; $1 could buy 1.9 million rials at the end of April.
Meanwhile, the inflation for food breached 115% compared to last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which predicted that the Iranian economy would shrink by six percentage points in the next year.
A look at Tehran’s once bustling market places demonstrates the blow Iranian leaders are making their citizens take, with the prices for chicken and lamb up 45%, rice 31% and eggs 60%, according to an Associated Press tour.
While Iran has tried to implement policies to help the masses, some of them have done more harm than good.
A program that introduced a 60% hike in the minimum wage, along with coupons for essential goods, caused inflation to become even more volatile, Taymur Rahmani, an economist at the University of Tehran, wrote recently in a leading Iranian business newspaper, Dunya-ye Eqtesad.
Tehran’s move to make buses and metro fares free in the capital have also dealt a blow to struggling taxi drivers, including people like Mohammad Deljoo, 73, who said he was feeding his family on a budget of $4 a day.
“We only buy what’s absolutely necessary, things like bread and potatoes. Even eggs have become too expensive for us,” Deljoo told the AP, accusing vendors of “price gouging.”
With the prices for food, medicine and other goods spiraling out of control, President Trump has bet that the economic pressure would force Iran to concede to his demands and lose the war.
The US has so far redirected 67 commercial ships trying to enter and exit Iran’s ports since the blockade went into effect last month, according to US Central Command.
