Iran

The Iranian government has decided to merge 18 retirement funds in response to a budget deficit of 3,000 trillion rials (approximately $6 billion) and its increasing debt to these funds, Iran Focus reported. Retirement funds in Iran are called “time bombs,” not because they are all considered bankrupt, but because they can lead to the destruction of both the economy and the Iranian society, along with bankruptcy.

An Iranian pharmacist says many of the pharmacies in Iran are going bankrupt due to economic problems, Iran International reported. Mohammad Reza Afkhami, Secretary of the Khorasan Razavi Pharmacists Association, said pharmacies are not separate from other guilds and they are not in a good economic situation, either. “Currently, the economy of pharmacies is ruined, and they are on the verge of closing down. If the situation continues like this, we will see the closure of pharmacies soon,” warned Afkhami.

When Khomeini made his triumphant return to Iran in 1979, the population of the country was 36 million, according to an op-ed in the Eurasia Review. In the 42 years that have followed, Iran’s population has grown to more than 85 million.

Iran is seeking financial aid from the International Monetary Fund for the first time since the 1960s as it tries to fight a major outbreak of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. Abdolnaser Hemmati, the head of the Central Bank of Iran, said in an Instagram post that he requested approximately $5 billion from the body’s Rapid Financing Instrument. The fund has said it would make $50 billion available to help member countries deal with the epidemic.

Iranian authorities have a new target in their bid to calm the country’s economic turmoil: meat-market manipulators, The Wall Street Journal reported. During the two-week celebration of the Persian New Year that ended April 5, Iranians found that putting food on their tables is far more expensive than before. The price of veal and beef increased 67% last year, while mutton had jumped 52% and chicken had become 63% more expensive, the Central Bank of Iran said.

As its economy buckles, Iran is zealously cracking down on financial fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported. Central to its efforts is a fast-track fraud court approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in August that has sentenced dozens of people, including some 50 men this month, to up to 20 years for paying bribes, embezzlement and damaging the economy. In November, authorities executed two men accused of smuggling foreign currency and manipulating the gold-coin market, the Iranian judiciary’s news service reported.