Rising food prices strain families in war-torn Iran | US-Israel War on Iran News

Tehran, Iran Rising inflation is threatening food security among Iran’s most vulnerable households, new indicators show, as diplomatic efforts ending the war started by the United States and Israel is escalating.

“People need to understand the situation in the country and the restrictions,” President Masoud Pezeshkian told a group of officials gathered Sunday to discuss rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed in the US and Israeli airstrikes.

“It is natural that there are difficulties and problems in this way, but through people’s cooperation and relying on the unity of the country, the problems can be solved,” said the government media.

Pezeshkian’s comments came a day after the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) said Farvardin, the first month of the Persian calendar that ended on April 20, had a 73.5 percent increase compared to the same month last year. SCI also said that inflation was five percent higher in Farvardin compared to the previous month.

The Central Bank of Iran, which reports figures from a different method and with different data, said that the inflation rate of 67 percent in Farvardin decreased slightly compared to the previous year, with an increase of 7 percent per month.

Although not the same, both figures show a significant increase in inflation, which has been one of the highest in the world in recent years. making the people of Iran poor.

A resident of Tehran told Al Jazeera that he could not afford to buy anything he could afford last month.

“And it’s not just me — I think a lot of people right now can’t afford to do a lot of what they want,” he said.

Figures from the agency also showed that the rise in food prices is much higher than the rise in headline prices, meaning people are forced to pay their bigger share. cut costs for essential items.

The SCI said that 115 percent of food inflation for the first month of the year, compared to the same period last year, is several important factors more than three times the price.

Solid vegetable oils had the largest increase at 375 percent, followed by liquid cooking oils at 308 percent; imported rice 209 percent; Iranian rice at 173 percent; and chicken at 191 percent. The lowest price increase was butter, at 48 per cent, followed by baby formula at 71 per cent and pasta at 75 per cent.

A young man named Majid, who works at a liver food company in the capital, said that the number of restaurants has tripled in the last few months.

“The price of liver has doubled. When we ask the sellers why, they say that it is not available or that sheep are being imported. To be honest, there is no real supervision,” he said.

The government watchdog Consumers and Producers Protection Organization said in a directive sent to 31 governors across Iran on Sunday that the new increase in cooking oil prices is “unlawful” and “must be returned to previous levels”, without saying how officials expected this to happen amid the economic crisis.

The country’s currency, the rial, has been re-registered new lows all the time in the last two weeks. On Sunday afternoon, it stood at about 1.77 million against the US dollar on the open market in Tehran after a slight recovery. The price was about 830,000 per US dollar a year ago.

Subsidies are ‘conspiracy enemies’

The government’s response has included handing out subsidies and coupons, while trying to tackle things like savings that are seen as fueling inflation.

But this was not delivered with an obvious economic stability package as the US clamped down and blockaded Iran’s ports.

As Iranian media announced on Sunday that Tehran had sent a response to the talks previously offered by the US through the mediation of Pakistan, Pezeshkian said, “If there is a dialogue, it does not mean surrender.”

The government provides monthly stipends and electronic vouchers to purchase essential items at select stores, all of which cost less than $10 per person per month. Officials are considering raising the money, but a major budget deficit has made that more difficult.

Pezeshkian and Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati said they were aware of the inflation, but criticized the battle that began in late February as they joined the courts to take action against price-fixing and reserving.

Several MPs in Iran’s most partisan parliament, as well as television presenters and broadcasters linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said the price hike was questionable. They have said that the exodus prices are part of a campaign of “economic revenge” against enemies who have failed in the battlefield.

“I want the people of Iran not to be fooled by the price hikes created by the enemy,” the guest said on state-run Ofogh TV. Great things have happened, and great things are ahead.

But some economic problems continue due to the internet shutdown imposed by the Iranian authorities for 72 days.

Many government officials, Internet equipment companies, telecommunications companies and other government-related organizations have expressed their opposition to the current Internet policy. But they have said they are innocent, as the blackout, which is expected to continue until the end of the war, has been ordered by the Supreme National Security Council.

Meanwhile, a combination of local mismanagement, Western sanctions, blockades, wars and internet shutdowns are putting more pressure on people and businesses.

“Startups in this country are dead, we are looking for a grave,” the Guild Association of Business-based Businesses said on Saturday.