Every year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives a congratulatory message on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. During these messages, which are broadcast on national TV, Iran’s leader reviews the country’s situation over the past twelve months and introduces a slogan as a guide for Iranian officials to follow in the coming year.
This Nowruz, which began on March 20, Ayatollah Khamenei announced that the slogan is a “surge in production through people’s participation.” He also took several jabs at Ebrahim Raisi, who has been considered his favorite president since Khamenei became Supreme Leader in August 1989 and who was heavily promoted to win the 2021 elections. These jabs were subtle on some occasions, not so much on others.
“The problems that people encountered with regard to the economy and their livelihood were some of the bitter events that we witnessed,” said Khamenei in reviewing the “bitter and sweet” moments of the past year.
The annual inflation rate has risen to 40%, according to Raisi himself, who also addressed Iranians on television in a customary Nowruz message.
“You remember that from the beginning of this government and at different times, some people claimed that inflation will reach three digits!,” Raisi said. “But today, not only those pessimistic predictions did not come true, on the contrary, inflation was on a downward path, point by point inflation decreased from around 55 percent at the beginning of this year to 35 percent in the last month, and total inflation will be something about 40 percent. That is, in just one year, point-to-point inflation has decreased by 20 percentage points.”
In fact, the president was conceding the damage done to the economy under his watch.
Average people are greatly irked by the skyrocketing prices of food and must stand in line to buy imported items from government-regulated grocery stores.
Traditionally, people celebrate Nowruz by eating herbed rice and fried trout. They also assemble on a table a traditional set of items, commonly known as Haft-Sin, consisting of an apple, sumac, coins, garlic, vinegar, a bowl with a goldfish in it, oleaster, other greenery and a traditional dessert called samanoo. But with such high prices, a family of four living on a minimum wage salary in Iran has to spend approximately 9 percent of a monthly income of $150 to provide the meal and prepare the Haft-Sin table, according to Tejarat News. This has caused some Iranians to skip the tradition this year.
“The main issue the country is facing again this year is the economy,” Khamenei noted. “The country’s main weakness is in the field of economics. We must be active in this field.” He lamented that the work done by officials did not reach the desired level.
Iran’s leader also said in his message that after studying experts’ opinions on Iran’s poor economy, he had come to the conclusion that “the key to solving the country’s economic problems lies in production – domestic production, national production.”
However, later on March 20, Khamenei met a group of people in his residence and conceded that there is no way to get the country’s economy going except by “taking measures at a global level.”
This appeared to be a reference to so far failed efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. The Trump administration quit the agreement in 2018, despite Iranian compliance, and reimposed draconian sanctions.
Iran, the European troika (Germany, the UK, France), China, Russia, the European Union, and the U.S. have been engaged for several years in talks to try to revive the agreement but have been stymied by global developments including the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The U.S. and Iran have reached some smaller understandings, but they have not been sufficient to revive foreign or domestic investment in the Iranian economy.
Apart from throwing Raisi, whose economic and foreign policies have been widely criticized as incompetent, under the proverbial bus, Khamenei blamed the collapse of the Iranian economy on unspecified “enemies” that “have been seeking to harm Iran’s economy for years.” He said, “they did not and would not succeed in reaching their goal.”
Raisi ran for the office with a greater goal in mind: to eventually succeed Khamenei, who is soon to turn 85. Two and a half years into his presidency, however, he has become just another convenient scapegoat similar to his predecessors.
Among his critiques of Raisi, Khamenei pointed to a stream of memorandums of understanding the president has signed with foreign countries as “ineffective. They should turn into national, legally binding, and executive contracts that are applicable so that their results are clear and tangible in practice,” Khamenei said.
Since August 2021, when Raisi took office, his administration has put long-term MoUs in front of every high-level foreign visitor. Raisi has bragged about these “achievements” but they have not had substantial concrete results.
Iran’s deepening economic woes spark questions about whether Raisi will run for a customary second term in presidential elections scheduled for 2025. His government’s poor performance also seems to bode poorly for him eventually succeeding Khamenei.
Saeed Azimi is a Tehran-based freelance political journalist and producer, contributing to reports for PBS NewsHour.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Blames His ‘Favorite’ President for Economic Woes
By Saeed Azimi
Middle East & North Africa
Every year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives a congratulatory message on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. During these messages, which are broadcast on national TV, Iran’s leader reviews the country’s situation over the past twelve months and introduces a slogan as a guide for Iranian officials to follow in the coming year.
This Nowruz, which began on March 20, Ayatollah Khamenei announced that the slogan is a “surge in production through people’s participation.” He also took several jabs at Ebrahim Raisi, who has been considered his favorite president since Khamenei became Supreme Leader in August 1989 and who was heavily promoted to win the 2021 elections. These jabs were subtle on some occasions, not so much on others.
“The problems that people encountered with regard to the economy and their livelihood were some of the bitter events that we witnessed,” said Khamenei in reviewing the “bitter and sweet” moments of the past year.
The annual inflation rate has risen to 40%, according to Raisi himself, who also addressed Iranians on television in a customary Nowruz message.
“You remember that from the beginning of this government and at different times, some people claimed that inflation will reach three digits!,” Raisi said. “But today, not only those pessimistic predictions did not come true, on the contrary, inflation was on a downward path, point by point inflation decreased from around 55 percent at the beginning of this year to 35 percent in the last month, and total inflation will be something about 40 percent. That is, in just one year, point-to-point inflation has decreased by 20 percentage points.”
In fact, the president was conceding the damage done to the economy under his watch.
Average people are greatly irked by the skyrocketing prices of food and must stand in line to buy imported items from government-regulated grocery stores.
Traditionally, people celebrate Nowruz by eating herbed rice and fried trout. They also assemble on a table a traditional set of items, commonly known as Haft-Sin, consisting of an apple, sumac, coins, garlic, vinegar, a bowl with a goldfish in it, oleaster, other greenery and a traditional dessert called samanoo. But with such high prices, a family of four living on a minimum wage salary in Iran has to spend approximately 9 percent of a monthly income of $150 to provide the meal and prepare the Haft-Sin table, according to Tejarat News. This has caused some Iranians to skip the tradition this year.
“The main issue the country is facing again this year is the economy,” Khamenei noted. “The country’s main weakness is in the field of economics. We must be active in this field.” He lamented that the work done by officials did not reach the desired level.
Iran’s leader also said in his message that after studying experts’ opinions on Iran’s poor economy, he had come to the conclusion that “the key to solving the country’s economic problems lies in production – domestic production, national production.”
However, later on March 20, Khamenei met a group of people in his residence and conceded that there is no way to get the country’s economy going except by “taking measures at a global level.”
This appeared to be a reference to so far failed efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. The Trump administration quit the agreement in 2018, despite Iranian compliance, and reimposed draconian sanctions.
Iran, the European troika (Germany, the UK, France), China, Russia, the European Union, and the U.S. have been engaged for several years in talks to try to revive the agreement but have been stymied by global developments including the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The U.S. and Iran have reached some smaller understandings, but they have not been sufficient to revive foreign or domestic investment in the Iranian economy.
Apart from throwing Raisi, whose economic and foreign policies have been widely criticized as incompetent, under the proverbial bus, Khamenei blamed the collapse of the Iranian economy on unspecified “enemies” that “have been seeking to harm Iran’s economy for years.” He said, “they did not and would not succeed in reaching their goal.”
Raisi ran for the office with a greater goal in mind: to eventually succeed Khamenei, who is soon to turn 85. Two and a half years into his presidency, however, he has become just another convenient scapegoat similar to his predecessors.
Among his critiques of Raisi, Khamenei pointed to a stream of memorandums of understanding the president has signed with foreign countries as “ineffective. They should turn into national, legally binding, and executive contracts that are applicable so that their results are clear and tangible in practice,” Khamenei said.
Since August 2021, when Raisi took office, his administration has put long-term MoUs in front of every high-level foreign visitor. Raisi has bragged about these “achievements” but they have not had substantial concrete results.
Iran’s deepening economic woes spark questions about whether Raisi will run for a customary second term in presidential elections scheduled for 2025. His government’s poor performance also seems to bode poorly for him eventually succeeding Khamenei.
Saeed Azimi is a Tehran-based freelance political journalist and producer, contributing to reports for PBS NewsHour.
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