Iranians are reporting steep increases in food prices, collapsing purchasing power and worsening job conditions as the U.S. blockade and continuing war intensify pressure on an economy already contending with inflation above 80%, a plunging currency and rising unemployment.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Iran’s economic crisis is increasingly being felt at grocery stores, workplaces and pharmacies, with residents describing a daily struggle to afford basic necessities as war and the U.S. blockade place additional strain on the country’s already weakened economy.
Some food prices have risen as much as 400%, according to Iranians interviewed by foreign news organizations, while the country’s annual inflation rate has climbed above 80% and unemployment reached a four-year high of 9.1% in June.
The Iranian rial has fallen to approximately 1.88 million to the U.S. dollar, creating particularly severe problems for residents and businesses that rely on dollars or imported goods.
“I’m in survival mode,” a 33-year-old cryptocurrency trader from western Iran using the alias “Nima” told The National on Monday.
Nima said his grocery expenses have tripled from levels that were already difficult to afford before the war with the United States, while some individual items now cost four times as much.
Even with cryptocurrency trading giving him greater access to foreign currency than many Iranians, he said the price increases have forced him to “choose between the essentials and everything else.”
The deteriorating job market has compounded the problem.
Unemployment surged after January’s uprising, when Iranian authorities imposed an Internet blackout lasting approximately three months. The shutdown disrupted businesses that depended on online communications and commerce and left many workers without income.
“Every tomorrow has been worse than the day before. If you can’t save, can’t buy what you want and don’t have a predictable future, then what’s the point of working any more?” Nima said.
Residents without access to foreign currency have faced even greater pressure as the rial continues losing purchasing power.
Blue-collar workers interviewed by The National said some Iranians are working two or three jobs simply to cover ordinary living expenses, while available employment remains insufficient to meet demand.
For many, the economic outlook has become bleak enough that leaving Iran appears more realistic than expecting conditions inside the country to improve.
“This isn’t life, to worry every day if you can feed your family,” one Iranian said.
A 26-year-old Tehran resident identified as “Saeed” described a labor market in which employers can demand unusually long hours while offering little security.
“You take one look at the condition of job postings you can find online or in person, and you will understand why some young people feel like it’s not even worth it going out for work. But the expenses don’t go away,” Saeed told Al Jazeera News on Sunday.
“A lot of employers don’t offer insurance and are asking for 12 hours of work per day, sometimes six days a week. They also come up with all sorts of excuses to deduct pay whenever they can, knowing you have limited options,” Saeed added.
Saeed said he has a master’s degree in Persian literature but is now seeking menial work to earn enough money for food.
Against those accounts, Iranian officials are publicly insisting that the country’s food supply remains secure.
Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri-Ghezeljeh said Monday that Iran’s food security remains “intact” despite the blockade.
Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Nouri-Ghezeljeh told a press conference that “85 percent of Iran’s food production is supplied domestically, while measures have been taken to secure the remaining imports.”
He also reported substantial increases in agricultural production, saying poultry and egg output had risen 19%, greenhouse production was up 18% and seedling production had increased 62%.
The agriculture minister further said Iran had received three million metric tons of imported food despite the blockade.
Those official claims stand in sharp contrast to accounts from residents describing dramatically higher grocery bills and deteriorating household purchasing power, while Iran is also recovering from a severe drought last year.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has publicly acknowledged broader strains on government finances and commercial activity.
“We could sell oil, and now we can’t. They have also struck and destroyed some of our factories, so we can’t levy taxes in the same way either. We must also pay them so they can stay up and running and the wheels of the economy can spin,” Pezeshkian said last week, according to Al Jazeera.
His government is considering fuel quotas and price increases as officials confront a widening gap between domestic fuel production and consumption.
Such measures could place additional pressure on businesses and households already struggling with inflation and shortages.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a London-based Iranian opposition organization, said Monday that “economic mismanagement, hyperinflation, and public outrage” are converging and forcing government officials to make “unprecedented admissions of failure.”
Vice President Mohammad-Reaz Aref acknowledged Sunday that inflation has become “painful” and said the government must prepare for “worst case-scenarios.”
Other Iranian officials have warned that fuel production is significantly trailing domestic consumption, raising concerns about the potential consequences of rationing or higher prices.
Executive Vice President Mohammad Ja’far said Sunday that a growing share of economic activity is shifting into a “shadow market,” adding that “we do not know whose pockets it goes into.”
Iran’s pharmaceutical sector is also under strain.
Mehdi Pirsalehi, head of Iran’s Food and Drug Organization, said Sunday that prices for many essential medicines have doubled.
The government’s response to potential public unrest is becoming another source of economic disruption.
According to NCRI, Iranian authorities have again begun throttling Internet traffic, echoing measures imposed during the January uprising. The restrictions have disrupted online transactions and employment in a country where many businesses depend on digital communications.
Iran is also moving toward a new security law that could impose lengthy prison terms for “unauthorized contact, interviews, or transmission of footage to foreign media outlets.”
The opposition group characterized those measures as an effort to contain rising dissatisfaction rather than resolve the underlying economic problems.
“These draconian measures reflect an establishment trapped in a terminal spiral, attempting to mask structural failure with state coercion,” NCRI said. “With basic food costs doubling, acute fuel deficits looming, medical supply lines collapsing, and localized protests continuing… the clerical leadership’s reliance on censorship and IRGC enforcement reveals profound vulnerability.”
The economic pressure now reaches across several critical areas at once: food, employment, currency stability, fuel, medicine and government revenues.
While Iranian officials insist domestic food production remains sufficient and imports are continuing, residents interviewed by foreign media describe a sharply different day-to-day reality marked by soaring prices and diminishing purchasing power.
For many Iranians, the most immediate consequence of the war and blockade is not an abstract measure of national economic performance but the increasingly difficult calculation of how to pay for food, housing and other necessities as wages and savings lose value.
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