TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (TCCIMA) believes the number of people who are living under poverty line has increased from 15 percent to 30 percent, admitting that the social gap has increased.
Speaking at the meeting of the board of representatives of the TCCIMA, Masoud Khansari said that in the Iranian calendar month of Ordibehesht last year, the inflation rate reached 41 percent and the social gap increased in a way that the number of people who are living under poverty line increased from 15 percent to 30 percent.
He added that there is insignificant investment in the country and fewer economic enterprises start working and the growth of investment comparing to the depreciation has become negative.
Khansari went on to say that today the most important issue is presidential election and the most important issue ahead of the next government is the economic issues but unfortunately during the election campaign debates, the candidates mostly express their dreams by giving dreamy promises.
He noted that this year’s budget has increased 140 percent comparing to the past year, reiterating that the government is expected to face 81 percent of budget deficit. He noted that the budget deficit will lead to the growth in the liquidity and monetary base.
Khansari went on to say that the chamber has conducted a research wherein the challenges ahead of Iran’s economy have been identified and the report has been delivered to the presidential candidates and it will continue its cooperation with the next government. He expressed hope that the next government would have a coordinated economic team for good planning to resolve the problems.
He also pointed to the IMF’s recent report and forecast regarding Iran’s economic growth and said Iran’s economic growth will be over 2 percent in 2021, adding that Iran has slipped 28 places in the IMF’s resilience indices rankings from 100th to 128th while Turkey ranks 60th.
On job creation in the past year, he said that one million people lost their jobs or left their jobs last year mostly because of the pandemic. He noted that in terms of devaluation of the national currency in the last year’s rankings in the world, Iran ranked first and it had the worst devaluation of its currency.
