Iranian citizens are telling foreign media outlets that survival is growing difficult as the price of food and other basic commodities soars by 400 percent under pressure from the U.S. blockade, even as the regime in Tehran insists the food situation is under control. “I’m in survival mode,” a 33-year-old cryptocurrency trader from western Iran using the alias “Nima” told The National on Monday.
Nima said his grocery bills have tripled from prices that were already painfully high before the conflict with the United States began and some items have quadrupled. He said this is forcing him to “choose between the essentials and everything else,” even though his crypto trading gave him better foreign currency reserves than most Iranians. The annual rate of general inflation in Iran is now over 80 percent and unemployment reached a four-year high of 9.1 percent in June. Iran’s currency, the rial, is down to an astounding 1.88 million against the U.S. dollar, which is an especially severe problem for the many Iranians who prefer to do business using dollars instead of Iran’s nearly-worthless currency.
Unemployment rates soared after the uprising in January because the regime blacked out the Internet for about three months, dealing a crushing blow to many Iranian businesses. “Every tomorrow has been worse than the day before. If you can’t save, can’t buy what you want and don’t have a predictable future, then what’s the point of working any more?” Nima said in despair.
Other Iranians who lacked Nima’s access to foreign currency were in even worse shape, as they can almost feel the regime scrip in their pockets losing its value with every passing day. Blue-collar Iranians told The National they had to work two or three jobs to make ends meet and there are not enough jobs to go around.Perhaps understandably, given the horrifying bloodbath the regime unleashed against protesters in January, few Iranians harbored realistic hopes of improving their country. Most of them simply dreamed of leaving. “This isn’t life, to worry every day if you can feed your family,” one of them said. (Read More)
