Prices in Iran are soaring as the war with the United States enters its seventh month and U.S. sanctions and blockades compound the strain. Rents, food, medicine and household goods have all jumped, squeezing household budgets ever tighter. Black-market transaction costs and bribes paid to officials have risen as well, spreading the economic crisis into daily life.
Reuters reported on the 29th, based on interviews with Iranian residents, that ordinary citizens can no longer cover even basic living costs as the war and U.S. sanctions batter the economy.
The price surge is hitting daily life directly. Hediyeh, a housewife in her 60s in northern Iran, said she now struggles to pay for diapers and medicine for her elderly mother, who has dementia. She said she had hoped to buy her grandson a backpack for the new school term but bought only pencils and notebooks after prices rose five- to sixfold.
Behnam Riazi, who runs a restaurant in Tehran, said he cannot raise prices because customers have cut spending on anything beyond necessities. He said he keeps the business open despite almost no profit because closing would leave him immediately unemployed.
A woman in her 30s living in Sanandaj said cigarette prices had climbed so high that she was effectively forced to quit smoking.
Housing costs have also grown heavier. One engineer, unable to keep up with soaring rent, moved to an area on the outskirts of Tehran that is close to a slum. An architect said they had a flat tire but no money for a new one and was getting by on the spare until they could find a cheap replacement. "Compared with before, everyone has become poor," he said.
Private-sector jobs are also disappearing. One office worker in Tehran said she was notified of her dismissal the day after renewing a one-year contract.
Bribes Rise With Prices: $200 to Skip Surgery Paperwork
As the economic crisis deepens, residents said black-market and corruption costs have climbed as well. One account described paying a surgeon $200 (about 260,000 won) under the table to bypass complex administrative procedures for surgery. Others said the bribes police demand to pass a checkpoint without identification have risen sharply from the past.
With living costs surging, the middle class is rapidly losing spending power. Restaurant customers are spending on nothing beyond essentials, and even some professionals are relocating to escape high housing and living costs, Reuters reported.
Political and social discontent is building as the economic pain grows, but there are signs that citizens lack even the means to take to the streets.
Protests against the economic crisis broke out in Iran in January and were harshly suppressed by the authorities. But Iranians interviewed by Reuters said the immediate problem of putting food on the table leaves them no room to think about protesting.
The economic pressure is also affecting diplomacy. Iran has recently been discussing ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in indirect talks with the United States. According to the Associated Press, Iran has offered to reopen the strait within seven days if Washington agrees to lift its port blockade, release frozen assets and ease sanctions on Iranian crude sales.
Meanwhile, the Iranian rial has fallen to another record low. According to the AP, the dollar traded above 2.5 million rials on the Tehran foreign exchange market on the 29th. The rial had weakened to 2.2 million to the dollar on the 2nd, then set a new record low just 27 days later. The currency has posted a string of record lows since the war began in February.
