Let us pray for an end of Petro$ in Iran!

An Iranian economist argues here that the Iranian government does not understand the causes of inflation. In another piece, he accuses the government to have increased the scale of poverty in the country. Another Iranian scholar argued here that despite all the claims by the government, it has no idea about how to reduce inequality and spread justice. Professor Taghavi suggested here that government programmes for job creation have been a total failure. He compares and contrasts the economies of Iran and Korea and concludes that a drastic change in the direction of the economy is needed. A Member of Parliament, Alikhani goes a little further and says that inflation could not be controlled by “command”, “ as it is the government which is fuelling inflationary pressure in the economy”. The Housing Minister, however, reveals “government’s programmes” to combat house price inflation by declaring that the “government would no longer participate in new house building” but, would only “ guide, support and regulate” house building in the country. Returning to the question of comparing Iran with Korea, it should be pointed out that Korea has followed an export-led growth model and developed while Iran has been and still is bogged down with a consumption-led supplied by imports models which is financed by Petro dollars which is effectively destroying the productive basis of the economy. Given what one can see in Iran these days, there does not appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. One can only hope for either an end of oil or a collapse in the oil price in the international market.