ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A considerable portion of Iran's population is struggling to meet basic life necessities and is grappling with significant poverty rates, semi-official media reported on Sunday, as Tehran contends with both internal and external challenges.
“A significant portion of our compatriots are grappling with the issue of poverty, fluctuating between 22 to 27 percent. This segment of our society struggles to meet their basic essential needs,” said Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), citing the head of the Institute of Labor and Social Security Ebrahim Sadeghifar.
Sadeghifar stressed that "poverty has been increasing" in recent years, leading to a widening gap between social classes.
“The Multidimensional Poverty Index indicates that we are in a very critical situation, and it is necessary to have a clear discourse regarding anti-poverty policymaking,” he added.
Statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show an inflation rate of 45-30 percent in the country during 2023-24, while it had only a three percent growth in its GDP.
Although the World Bank reported higher consumption rates in Iran and a decrease in poverty from 2020 to 2022, a consistent 20% of the population still faces economic challenges.
The poverty rates and economy have led to an increase in school drop-out rates, according to Sadeghifar.
In April, the World Bank said that despite a general decline in poverty in Iran, disparities remain prevalent, particularly in the rural and southeastern regions.
The value of the toman against the United States dollar went from 61,000 to 81,000 in 2024. It has also experienced a sharp decline since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election.
The value of the toman has plummeted drastically since former US President and current President-elect Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal that offered Iran much-needed relief from crippling sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear enrichment program.
In 2015, the Toman was around 4,000 against the US dollar.
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