{"id":347532,"date":"2026-08-26T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=347532"},"modified":"2026-08-26T20:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:57:26","slug":"empirical-data-and-street-riots-expose-iran-regimes-misplaced-priorities-as-the-true-engine-of-economic-devastation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-protests\/empirical-data-and-street-riots-expose-iran-regimes-misplaced-priorities-as-the-true-engine-of-economic-devastation\/","title":{"rendered":"Empirical Data and Street Riots Expose Iran Regime\u2019s Misplaced Priorities as the True Engine of Economic Devastation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AI-generated<\/p>\n

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

Iran is facing an economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Rampant inflation, bankrupt factories, and staggering poverty rates are not just abstract statistics\u2014they are the painful, defining realities of ordinary Iranians’ lives. However, the people do not blame foreign sanctions for their suffering; they blame the true architect of the devastation: the regime itself.<\/p>\n

Sanctions hurt Iran\u2019s economy<\/a>. They cut oil revenue, raise transaction costs and block access to Western capital and technology. Academic studies put the cumulative GDP loss at 12\u201319 percentage points. Oil earnings fell from roughly $95 billion in 2011 to lows of $5\u201311 billion in the worst years.<\/p>\n

But food, medicine, medical devices and agricultural goods have never been sanctioned. US law (Trade Sanctions Reform Act 2000), OFAC rules (31 CFR \u00a7560.530 and successive general licenses), EU regulations and UN resolutions all carve them out explicitly. Iranian pharmaceutical imports hit $1.92 billion in 2022 \u2014 higher than the 2011 peak. Foodstuffs and live animals reached a record $12.74 billion in 2023.<\/p>\n

The deeper, longer-running crisis \u2014 chronic 20\u201345 percent inflation, a rial that has collapsed from about 10,500 to the dollar in 2010 to 1.5 million by January 2026, blackouts<\/a> in a country sitting on the world\u2019s second-largest gas reserves, collapsing living standards and mass emigration \u2014 is driven by the regime\u2019s own choices. Iranian budget laws, the Court of Audit, the Majlis Research Center, the Central Bank, the Statistical Centre and the regime\u2019s own officials document this clearly. The regime acquires large volumes of food and medicine. Those goods do not reach ordinary households or stabilize markets because of diversion, preferential access for insiders and deliberate prioritization of military, ideological and patronage spending.<\/p>\n

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The following report sheds light on the coordination, the challenges, the sophisticated relations between the different parties engaged, and how greed is a driving motivator for their workmanship.#IranRevolution<\/a>#BlacklistIRGC<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/genvxrs91b<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n