The embargo on oil and metal and petrochemical products forced the Iranian regime to trade non-oil goods with neighboring countries. These exports and imports, which amounted to $70 billion during 2018, were overshadowed by the coronavirus outbreak.
The collapse of Iran’s economy is nothing more than the result of 41 years of plunder and the spending of the Iranian people’s wealth in foreign wars and terrorisms. Billions of dollars have been spent on the expansion of fundamentalism and terrorism, and this brought for the people nothing other than poverty and misery.
Just to note, a few weeks after the outbreak of the coronavirus, medical masks, and medical supplies for the medic staff or hospital beds for the sick have become the most pressing problem for the people.
The coronavirus outbreak shows how unstable, fragile and vulnerable the regime’s economy is. After a few weeks when the outbreak became public, most of the regime’s economy has collapsed.
The price of US dollars was the first place that reacted and was blown by the outbreak and the national currency Rial is now 150000 to the dollar.
Manufacturing workshops and small guilds have become one of the earliest places of the serious coronavirus attack because there is no hygiene in these workshops to stay safe from the virus.
“Because car companies are unable to stop the spread of coronavirus among workers in the expanse of workshops and lack of sanitation, it is better that they decrease their work activities,” said Mojtaba Hajizadeh, head of the Automobile Industry Workers Union. (IRNA, 1 March 2020)
The coronavirus outbreak, along with currency fluctuations, has had a widespread economic impact. Some businesses, such as cinemas, concerts, theaters and even hotels in some provinces of the country, are completely closed.
The closure of these businesses has caused a lot of damage to their owners. Smaller businesses, too, are not immune. Travel agencies, restaurants, coffee shops, and so forth are businesses that have come close to bankruptcy after the coronavirus outbreak, many of which have closed their stores themselves.
Jamshid Hamzadzadeh, head of the Iranian Association of Professional Hoteliers, pointing out that the occupancy rate of all hotels in the country has fallen below 5%. “Many hotels have closed spontaneously, but in some provinces such as Ardabil, part of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Qom hotels have been shut down due to the emphasis and insistence of the Coronavirus National Headquarter. Whether hotels are closed or not, they currently have no occupants, and occupancy has fallen below five percent.” (Jahan-Sanat, 5 March 2020)
Said Motameni, President of the Union of Exhibitors of the capital, says: “It can be said that nowadays, the business of our partners in this area has decreased by 80% before the spread of the coronavirus.” (Khabar-Fori, 3 March 2020)
“These countries have by no means allowed Iranian planes to fly to their countries,” the secretary of the Airlines Association said, adding that Turkey, Georgia, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkmenistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iraq have all banned flights to Iran. (Kayhan, 26 February 2020)
At present, the coronavirus blows are not limited to the loss of airlines, as the regime’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on the downward trend in oil prices. The virus has shut down economic activity in China and reduced demand for oil. (Kayhan)
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