{"id":340317,"date":"2025-12-09T20:03:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=340317"},"modified":"2025-12-09T20:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:03:28","slug":"irans-unraveling-promises-amid-escalating-economic-and-public-health-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/economy\/irans-unraveling-promises-amid-escalating-economic-and-public-health-crises\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Unraveling Promises Amid Escalating Economic and Public-Health Crises"},"content":{"rendered":"
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File photo: A crowd gathers outside a local money exchange shop amid mounting currency instability and the collapse of the Iranian rial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the second week of December, as the dollar climbed above 126,000 tomans and most of Iran\u2019s major cities choked under hazardous air, the government\u2019s most basic assurances\u2014pensions, medicine, clean air, even internet access\u2014began slipping out of its own reach. Officials did not deny it. They narrated it.<\/p>\n

A State That Can\u2019t Afford Its Own Promises<\/h2>\n

The sharpest admission came from a constituency the regime has long sought to neglect: retirees. On December 8, a senior member of the regime-aligned retirees\u2019 association confirmed<\/a> that the government owes Social Security \u201cthousands of billions\u201d of tomans and has cut its contribution to supplemental insurance from 50% to 30%, even as medical costs surge. He called retirees \u201cfire beneath the ashes\u201d\u2014a phrase that rarely appears in state-adjacent commentary unless anxiety is high.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, inflation data once withheld by the Central Bank resurfaced: in 10 of 12 months of 2023, inflation exceeded 50%. With that baseline now public, the administration\u2019s proposed 20% wage increase reads almost symbolic. An energy-sector official, quoted by ILNA<\/a> on December 8, noted that essential goods have risen \u201c1,000% in seven years,\u201d with bread up 13-fold and meat 21-fold.<\/p>\n

Still, the government is cutting rather than expanding social protection. The Talasemia Association issued its starkest warning<\/a> yet: with preferential FX for life-saving drugs quietly removed, costs may rise 4- to 12-fold, forcing some families\u2014already appealing for medical loans in the hundreds of millions of tomans\u2014to contemplate selling organs.<\/p>\n

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#Iran<\/a>\u2019s Economic Crisis: Built to Break, Bound to Burnhttps:\/\/t.co\/a1ZwyHDI1Q<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n