Iran prices up 40%

Prices in Iran have jumped by about 40% in the six weeks since the war began, according to Reuters interviews with residents in Tehran and other cities. (al-monitor.com) Reuters reported on April 8 that Iranian officials were already warning they could struggle to meet government payrolls unless sanctions are lifted and frozen funds are released. One official said the country “will face a disaster” if that does not happen. (usnews.com) The squeeze comes after weeks of United States and Israeli strikes, which Reuters said damaged major industrial facilities, wiped out jobs and left parts of Iran’s infrastructure needing months or years of repair. (al-monitor.com) Iran went into the war with high inflation already baked in. The International Monetary Fund put Iran’s 2024 inflation rate at 32.5%, and Iranian-linked reports citing International Monetary Fund forecasts said inflation was expected to reach 42.4% in 2025. (dw.com) (ifpnews.com) That matters for a country of roughly 93 million people, where a weaker rial raises the local price of imported food, medicine and industrial inputs even before new war damage is counted. (worldometers.info) (dawn.com) Reuters also reported that Iranian authorities had released no new economic data since the war began, making the full scale of the damage hard to measure from inside the country. Residents and analysts instead described a mix of rising prices, job losses and a falling currency. (usnews.com) Officials and outside analysts told Reuters the economy has become the government’s “Achilles heel,” with fears that a deeper downturn could revive the protest pressure that shook Iran in earlier waves of unrest. (yahoo.com) For now, the immediate problem is basic state capacity: paying workers, stabilizing prices and repairing damaged plants while sanctions still block access to cash and trade. (usnews.com)