Raisi’s Inflation or Iran’s Inflation
Raisi’s Inflation or Iran’s Inflation: Which is the Reality? According to IranGate, on Sunday, August 28, 2022, Ebrahim Raisi attended a press conference where he made statements that sparked many reactions. Raisi, who introduced his government as honest and true to its promises, claimed that the government has been very successful in fulfilling its election promises. This statement was enough for experts and social media users to start criticizing the thirteenth president in various fields.
Inflation, the Highlight of Raisi’s Unreal Claims
In the recent press conference, Raisi largely ignored many of his election promises. He only addressed the issues that his advisors had set for the president. Despite the fact that the journalists’ questions did not seriously challenge Raisi, even those repetitive questions were answered in a way that provoked different social groups.
However, Raisi’s most controversial claim was related to presenting astonishing and unprecedented reports on the inflation rate. By emphasizing a 20% control of the inflation rate by the thirteenth government, he surprised experts.
The president claimed to have stopped borrowing from the central bank and stated that this policy is the key to his success in controlling inflation. However, the point is that not only are the statistics provided by the president questionable, but experts believe that borrowing from the central bank has neither stopped nor slowed down.
Central Bank Inflation or Statistical Center
Since taking the helm of the thirteenth government, Ebrahim Raisi has claimed three times to have controlled and even reduced the inflation rate in the current government. In the early months of the thirteenth cabinet’s work, Raisi appeared on national television and mentioned a reduction of over 13% in the inflation rate. This claim was made while reports from the Statistical Center indicated that not only had the inflation rate not decreased compared to the first half of the year, but in some indices, there was an uncontrolled increase in this important economic measure.
On the other hand, the surge in the dollar’s price in the free market during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency also confirmed that naturally, inflation should have increased accordingly, challenging Raisi’s claim.
However, in the spring of 2022, Ebrahim Raisi again, in a live television program, referred to a 63% inflation rate during Hassan Rouhani’s government. This statement was made while the central bank has not published inflation rate statistics since 2018. The law assigns the responsibility of publishing monthly inflation rate reports to the Statistical Center of Iran.
One to the Heel, One to the Toe
However, Raisi, without mentioning this, announced the inflation statistics for Rouhani’s government based on central bank reports, which had not been published in any media until that moment. But the report he cited for announcing the inflation rate in his own government was from the Statistical Center of Iran, which is published officially and publicly.
In fact, Mr. Raisi and his advisors are trying to distort reality and present documents in a way that suits them by lying and hypocrisy. But the point is that such actions cannot have any positive impact on the livelihoods of people who are getting poorer by the day. Deceiving public opinion by reducing the central bank’s status to a tool for the thirteenth government’s propaganda will also further discredit the national currency.
Apparently, the president every night looks at statistics that no one has seen before and is pleased with his performance over the past year. With this in mind, one must truly congratulate Raisi’s advisors for putting him in such a delusion that he probably sees himself as a politician like Olaf Palme, Barack Obama, or Merkel.
Borrowing Continues
As mentioned, another of Ebrahim Raisi’s false statements in his recent press conference was related to the government’s cessation of borrowing from the central bank. This claim had been repeatedly confirmed by the central bank, but independent domestic media had always reacted to this false claim.
In this regard, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former governor of the central bank and also Raisi’s rival in the 2021 elections, has shown many reactions. This time, Hemmati on his personal Twitter account deemed Raisi’s claim of the government not borrowing from the central bank as incorrect.
The former governor of the central bank wrote on Twitter: ‘Mr. Raisi, while congratulating Government Week, I think you have not been given correct information regarding the method of borrowing from the central bank and the amount of money creation. From the beginning of October 2021 to the end of July 2022, in just 10 months, 134 trillion tomans have been printed in your government. The liquidity effect of this is beyond 1,000 trillion tomans.’
Of course, Hemmati has considered the aspects and did not want to call Raisi a liar, but the truth is that after a year, Mr. Raisi should have understood that such claims, given the heavy budget deficit of the government, are not only unrealistic but fundamentally false. However, if the thirteenth president has not realized this so far, there should indeed be concern about continuing under his leadership with deceitful, unqualified, and unethical advisors.
Statistical Fabrication, a Common Practice of Raisi’s Government
Despite the high volume of reactions from experts and ordinary citizens to the issues raised by Raisi, it seems the government has no intention of changing its current approach in dealing with the media.
An approach that is strongly reminiscent of Ahmadinejad’s media strategy. We remember that these false statements by Ahmadinejad caused many economists to protest.
Of course, it is clear that the bitter letters from economic science specialists to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led nowhere, and he pushed the country’s economy to the brink of collapse. But it should not be forgotten that Raisi’s attempt to clumsily copy Ahmadinejad requires a little intelligence and academic knowledge, which apparently the thirteenth president lacks.
Another report and analysis related to this article titled ‘In 2023, We Should Expect Hyperinflation’ has been published on IranGate.