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Food Prices, Inflation Rise Sharply in Iran
(Washington Post) Joby Warrick and James Ball - Prices for beef and lamb had already soared out of reach for middle-class Iranians. But when the cost of yogurt spiked this week, Iran's economic troubles hit home for virtually every household in the country. Calm was reported Thursday in the capital after protests Wednesday, as security forces patrolled key intersections and presided over mostly empty stalls in the city's largest street bazaar. But Iran's currency remained at near-historic lows. While the International Monetary Fund last year estimated Iran's foreign-currency reserves at $80 billion, Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the market turmoil is likely a sign that the regime has spent that down. He estimates that Iran's reserves have dropped by 50% or more. The collapsing exchange rate and shortages of goods could be countered, Hufbauer said, only by using some of that hard currency to stop the run on the rial. The fact that it continues, he said, is evidence the government does not want to let go of the reserve money it has on hand.