Iran, ECONOMIC REPORT
Economic reports on Iran:
1. Official Central Bank reports an inflation rate for the Iranian month of Shahrivar (August 22-September 21) was 24 percent, an increase of just half a percentage point over last month’s figure.
2.Dr. Mehdi Taghavi, a leading economist from Iran’s Allameh Tabatabai University, said recently that Iran’s inflation rate is close to 50%, according to Iran’s Labor News Agency.
3. More Iranians are attempting to send funds overseas, or to convert to other currencies.
4. Leadership of Iran is distracted by conflicts between President Ahmadinejad and the "Mulla Regime" over "who is to blame" for the bad economy. Neither the religious leaders of Iran, or Ahmadinejad have education in economic matters.
5. Dr. Taghavi reports that Iran has the highest inflation rate of any Middle Eastern nation.
6. The Rial has lost 80% of it's purchasing power in the last 6 months.
7. Steve H. Hanke of Johns Hopkins University reports that Iran’s foreign-exchange black market, suggests Iran’s monthly inflation rate at 69.6%.
8. The central bank, also highly influenced by the religious leadership in Iran, has been widely criticized, as "finger pointing" continues in Iran.
9. News site Khabar Online, considered a moderate publication, published an interview with economist Ali Pakzad, criticizing the central bank for "erratic financial information' over the past three years. This sounds like a "shoot the messenger" reaction.
10. Sunday, Mohammadreza Pour-Ebrahimi, the deputy head of Iran’s parliamentary Economic Commission, said that the central bank was failing to maintain a stable currency. Pour-Ebrahimi told Fars News, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, that bank officials must stabilize the foreign exchange market, and that two of the major factors in Iran’s economic crisis were the lack of working capital and an unstable currency. Pour-Ebrahimi accused the central bank of turning a blind eye to the large number of Iranians exchanging their savings into foreign currencies over the past few months.
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Economic Facts: A nation must have stability in order to provide citizens and business to plan accordingly. High inflation usually reflects an imbalance of supply and demand. But, stability and confidence is a key. It appears that neither the President of Iran, the Religious "Mullah Regime", or the Central Bank have ability to create stability. This stands starkly when contrasted to the fact that Iran has a highly educated society, has one of the largest military establishments in the Middle East, continues to support and export funds to "disrupt" other nations, and has a huge oil reserve. The nation continues to spend huge sums on nuclear development and research (it says for future energy development).
But even the oil industry in Iran has been hampered by what appears to be incompetent religious leadership standing in the way of improving infrastructure of the oil industry, while squandering treasure on unnecessary misadventures. A nation which has such potential for regional, even global influence, seems to lack qualified leadership to coordinate an effective, prosperous economy, to allow the people to achieve their dreams or their potential.
Sadly Iran's bright and creative people are relegated to "survival mode" when they could be contributing to the world in hundreds of ways. If Iran were a private company, most managers would suggest a complete reorganization of the board of directors, the officers, and a restructuring of the corporate structure. But, it would seem that while Iran's intellects observe and see what is happening to their nation, and Iran's youth long for more human rights and freedoms, Iranian artists singers and the liberal arts distinctly define a sadness about their nation.
Surely, Iran is an example of what happens when an exceptionally intelligent people, are doomed to live in a nation where an unhealthy, even lethal combination of religion and politics is applied to government, forced upon a people, resulting in a confusing, conflicted, counter productive society. Iran's golden history of the past, is sullied with religious and political ideologues. One must dream, even hope for another Cyrus the Great, to revive Iran's future, and provide hope for the children of that nation.