Rouhani says Iranians in road to ‘economic epic’

Iran’s president has said the economic epic will be realized by Iranian public; says no alternative to second round of targeted subsidies plan.
The official website of President Hassan Rouhani’s office reported that the president had participated in a joint session with the Parliament Wednesday night. “The income from the subsidies is $ 10b annually and subsidies to be paid to public are $ 14b, which means a deficit of $ 4b every month,” said Rouhani.

He pointed to a letter signed by legislators where they demanded that the second phase of targeted subsidies plan be suspended. “They are truly worried about the situation, and hence have signed the letter to warn that plan would exacerbate the recession and inflation,” added the president, “yes, we are facing unprecedented recession; we had eight subsequent years of recession with negative growth of 5.8 per cent last year.”

Rouhani believed that the statistics of economic stagflation were quite disturbing. “Our industry sector experienced a growth rate of minus 44; investment and employment in industry sector experienced a growth rate of minus 37 per cent,” he said, and that “these figures show us how severe our stagflation is.”

President Rouhani also added that his cabinet assumed the office, inheriting an inflation of above 40 per cent. “All the government’s attempt was focused on reducing the inflation to 35 per cent. We hope to achieve this. Our objective is to reduce it further to 25 per cent in the upcoming year,” he said.

Rouhani asked rhetorically the parliamentarians how to act in a situation of stagflation and numerous crises.

On foreign policy, Rouhani believed that Iranians’ success in foreign policy had made the US and its allies to raise the Cain. “They are angry since we are taking successful steps. In an economic forum, the role and influence of Iran are evident in the fact that the Zionist regime and the US officials would cry out of reaction to our success,” added Rouhani, believing that the government would not talk much, since “ our path to success is quite clear.”