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Iranian gov't policy more harmful that US sanctions, says economist

Business Materials 1 November 2018 09:53 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Nov.1

Trend:

Iranian government policies have raised the price of raw materials in various sectors of economy, an Iranian economist Ehsan Soltani told Trend.

“The government's actions in the economic sector have been more harmful than sanctions,” he said.

“For example, government policies have made the construction sector shut down because costs of some construction materials, which are mostly imported, have almost doubled in price," he pointed out.

"The contractors could previously buy the required materials via credit but now the payments are cash only," he said.

He went on to add that in other, small and medium industries, initial costs, input prices and the average cost as well as working capital have almost doubled.

The situation is getting worse as the incomes have not increased, he said.

“According to the official statistics of Iran, prices in the service and retail sector have jumped 150 to 200 percent as many people refuse to buy home appliances,” he said.

“These conditions have caused the shops to become empty. According to the reports, the restaurant sector faced a 70 percent drop in sales. It should be noted that there are many informal workers in these sectors whose stagnation will aggravate the situation,” he noted.

In addition, large industries whose raw materials are imported from abroad are more influenced by government policies, so increasing sanctions can exacerbate this trend, the economist said.

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