Reza Kangari, head of the Bankers’ Union of Tehran province, states that since the end of the Nowruz holiday, the price of all kinds of food items in Iran has increased by an average of 30%, with the price of beans rising by 50% in particular.
Due to the increase in the dollar’s value over the last month and the possibility of continued currency price hikes due to political and military tensions, the cost of all consumer goods in Tehran’s market has become nearly 20% more expensive within just 72 hours.
According to Kangari, “Every year, as we move forward, a number of costs automatically increase and affect production. In the last two weeks, we’ve had a 30% increase in food item prices, which is due to rising labor costs, insurance, taxes, etc. A number of companies have applied this 30% increase.
“The existing inflation is unfair, and everyone charges whatever price they want. For example, we’ve seen a 50% increase in the price of beans, where there is a currency issue, and importers did not distribute properly.”
He added, “Iranian rice has also increased in price recently because they have placed a series of restrictions on importing foreign rice. If you want to import, you must buy one kilo of Iranian rice for every two kilos of imports. For instance, rice worth 40,000 tomans has reached 60,000 tomans, and the wholesale price of Hashemi rice is now around 120,000 tomans.”
Inflation Impacting Iranian Provinces
The Iran Statistics Center’s report from March also showed that the monthly inflation rate for food items increased in 30 provinces of Iran.
This is despite the fact that in the current situation, with increasing political and military tensions between the regime and Israel, it seems that from Saturday onwards and the end of the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Iran, we are likely to see an increase in the price of various currencies and then other consumer items and vital goods.
Trade Deficit and Currency Devaluation
Hossein Selahvarzi, a businessman living in Iran and the former head of the Chamber of Commerce, announced on the X social network that the trade balance deficit in 2023 reached more than $16 billion, which means that Ebrahim Raisi’s government broke a record after 13 years, previously held by Ahmadinejad’s government in 2013.
However, none of the regime’s officials, since last Tuesday when Iran’s national currency began to decline again, have reacted to this situation.
It seems that currently, they do not have a plan or ability to deal with the successive political and military crises, which are further weakening Iran’s already fragile economy.
Meanwhile, Yaser Jebraili, the head of the Center for Strategic Evaluation and Monitoring of the Expediency Council, revealed that government officials also believe the dollar price in Iran will soon reach 100,000 tomans.
He said, “What is cause for concern is that Raisi’s government does not intend to change course and officially talks about 100,000 tomans per dollar.”
Increasing Poverty in Iranian Society
Due to the non-increase in salaries of Iranian workers and employees in accordance with the official inflation rate and the increasing price of all consumer goods in Iran, it indicates that poverty will become more widespread among Iranian society in 2024.
