[Euro-Atlantic Quarterly] Michael Rubin - In his 2005 election campaign, President Ahmadinejad promised to bring Iran's "oil [money] to the table of every Iranian." Oil prices may have more than tripled to over $130, but few Iranians see benefit as Iran experiences runaway inflation and shortages of basic commodities. This past winter, bread prices increased between 200 and 700 percent across northern Iran. To alleviate prices, the government shipped bread from Tehran to the north, sparking shortages and bread lines in Tehran. Ahmadinejad ordered the Central Bank to lower interest rates to 10 percent and clashed with its director after he refused. Sarmayeh, Iran's main financial daily, ridiculed Ahmadinejad's new finance minister after he denied any relationship between interest rates and inflation. The reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd observed, "The misguided policies of the government hit us harder than the sanctions of the foreigners."
2008-09-08 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive