Raisi promised a lot and so far he has failed to deliver..we can only hold him against what he promised to do:
4 million low cast housing
3 million auto production
8% GDP increase first year
Low inflation
Of course you can do that - knowing that in democratic systems, it's a common thing for politicians to issue all sorts of campaign promises, only to fail carrying them out after they're voted in.
But more conclusive would be a study of what Ra'isi can and what he cannot be expected to accomplish considering the political and economic framework under which he is operating. What areas his maneuvering room covers. What forces are at play in the advisory role to the administration's formulation of economic policies. In what way the economic debate taking place in the background is impacting governmental policy making.
This will allow for deeper understanding of what's going on, and what the stakes are. A series of debates between economic experts have been aired by IRIB over the past years. They represent a good source of information in this regard.
Two fundamental problems with Iranian economy that no president has been able to tackle:
1- 80% of economy is managed by the government and not private sector
Oddly enough, the government is powerless to dictate its terms to major state-owned companies. They're basically doing as they please.
2- A foreign policy which makes Iran toxic to foreign investment and trade (China is a good example ..no Chinese business man wants to put his money in Iran)
No 1 item is acknowledged and they try to fix it. No 2 problem goes to the heart of Islamic Republic system and no president can fix that.
The problem goes to the heart of zio-American imperialism. Washington spelled out its pre-conditions for any agreement with Iran through Pompeo's twelve point list of demands. There will be no middle ground, no alternative to this no matter what. The US is simply not interested in reconciling with Iran on balanced grounds.
Therefore Iranian officials must stop conditioning economic development on vain "hopes" of a thaw in relations with Washington because it will never come. It is precisely this brand of thinking, echoed in your above quote, which has acted as a barrier to economic expansion.
While Iran is the worldwide leader of anti-imperial Resistance at the political and geostrategic level, she is significantly lagging behind Russia and China when it comes to de-dollarization. In other words, Iran has been chaining herself to the US dollar, the same currency used by the enemy as a weapon of economic warfare. Isn't this peculiar?
The Supreme Leader delivers a speech insisting on the necessity to de-dollarize the Iranian economy, and shortly afterwards a monetarist-inspired publication like
Donyāye Eqtesād proceeds to run a headline dismissing de-dollarization as such. So much for Iran's economic policy being controlled by the Leadership, by the way. But this begs the question what exactly is causing such a situation? Find out by researching who's who in the Iranian economic debate.
when 80 % of economy is in hand of government , blaming people and private sector for everything won't change anything ...
When the government approaches so-called state-owned companies for funds, they refuse to comply. What kind of state-owned companies have the power to act in such a way? Reality is that through lobbying and similar practices, those companies are imposing their will on the government, not the other way around.
Also the terms private sector and people aren't synonymous. Small business owners do form part of the people at large, but proprietors of giant corporations don't.
It doesn't seem to have occurred to you that your monetarist friends are loving the price hike: after all, they want consumer good prices in Iran to align on international ones, because their goal is to integrate Iran into global markets and to comply with IMF and World Bank directives. At the same time, they'll be up in arms when there's the slightest talk of raising wages accordingly or of imposing taxes on the astronomic profits pocketed by big business.
This is for those who're interested in gaining some insight into the dynamics surrounding and shaping economic policy in Iran. Namely, the ongoing struggle between a rising school of thought which has begun challenging the monopoly of monetarist and neoclassical economics. If you want your judgement on government policies to be an informed one, there's no way around this knowledge.
On Aparat:
https://www.aparat.com/v/fdUqc
The full debate between Yāser Jebrā'ili, who works with the Expediency Discernment Council and Mehdi Toqiāni, member of Majles representing Esfahan. While both are considered part of or close to the principlist camp, their views on the economy contrast starkly.
On Aparat:
https://www.aparat.com/v/jECnq
www.ensafnews.com
