Free Republic

April 23 After announcing two weeks ago that the official inflation rate in the final month of the past Iranian year (ending March 19) was 21.5 percent, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), which had stopped reporting commodity prices last spring, released a report on the prices of 33 essential household goods. Average prices for the surveyed items have risen from 18 to 146 percent in the past year. Vegetables headed the list, with a price index increase of 146 percent during the past 12 months. Dairy products were next, with an increase of 59 percent. The price of beef...

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut — The Iranian government's removal of decades-old subsidies for food and energy in an attempt to boost its troubled economy has spurred price increases on everything from fruit and vegetables to gasoline, generated work stoppages and emboldened the political opposition. In Tehran, the nation's capital, taxi fares that officially were to rise by 10% shot much higher as drivers imposed their own price increases. Some truckers across the country refused to work, complaining of government threats to revoke their permits if they raised their prices to offset higher fuel costs. Crews on ferry boats operating...

While all available figures confirm Iran's broad economic failures, the best proof of its dismal economic conditions may be the economic difficulties of life in Tehran. A young couple with bachelor degrees and a few years of work experience as schoolteachers would have a combined monthly income of about US$1,000. If the couple had a young child, they would need at a minimum $1,000 to pay their monthly bills (food, clothing, electricity, gasoline, insurance, medical) and another $1,000 per month in rent for a modest apartment (which also requires a significant security deposit). How can such couples, university-educated at that,...

TEHRAN, Dec. 3 -- Gasoline? It's 36 cents a gallon. Laundry detergent? Fifty cents for a standard-size box. Milk? About 20 cents a quart. These prices are so low because Iran's government spends half its national budget to subsidize many of life's necessities. Not for long.