Iran’s Rouhani says economic problems go beyond sanctions

[BATMAN]

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

* Rouhani says Ahmadinejad added to inflation and debt

* Government’s priority is to bring down inflation

* Easing of sanctions will not have immediate effect

DUBAI: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran’s economic problems went beyond sanctions, blaming “unparalleled stagflation” on the profligacy and mismanagement of his predecessor, hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In office from 2005 until August, Ahmadinejad presided over a period of unprecedented revenue growth due to high oil prices but, analysts say, squandered much of it on subsidies that pumped money into the economy and drove up inflation.

He also antagonised the United States and the West by threatening to wipe Israel off “the page of time”, repeated denials of the Holocaust and an uncompromising stance on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.

“The stagflation in 1391 was unparalleled,” Rouhani said, referring to the Iranian year that ended in March. During that year, the economy contracted by 6 percent, while inflation rose above 40 percent, he said.

The International Monetary Fund expects Iran’s economy will shrink 1.5 percent this year in inflation-adjusted terms, after an estimated 1.9 percent contraction last year which was the biggest since 1988, when Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq ended.

Despite receiving 600 billion dollars in oil revenue over the past eight years, Rouhani said the legacy of Ahmadinejad’s two terms was around $67 billion dollars of debt. Iran’s nominal GDP was $549 billion in 2012 and will shrink to $389 billion in 2013, according to the IMF’s October outlook.

“These facts show the conditions we inherited from the previous government and in what conditions we must grapple with the problems,” Rouhani said in a speech late on Tuesday to mark his first 100 days in office.

Rouhani secured a landslide election victory in June promising a policy of “constructive engagement” with the outside world would help ease international sanctions on the Islamic Republic imposed over its nuclear programme. Iran denies seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability. reuters

 

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He only trying to avoid pressure by this words .... a tactic that Rafsanjani used and say all problems are result of war .... Khatemis said it is because Rafsanjani era , Ahmadi Nejad said the problems are result of Rafsanjani and Khatemi era and now Rouhani repeating this helpless cycle ...

people buy this kind of argument till the end of this year ( Jallali ) , not more ....

although , from Shah era , our economic get fucked because he turned Iran to a an oil depended country , before it , our budget was depend on social taxes and our private companies and business's taxes ....

and after revolution , the war make it worse and made iran economic more oil depended ....