Prices for energy due to skyrocket, squeezing the pocketbooks of ordinary Iranians
From President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to housewives and
shopkeepers, all of Iran is on tenterhooks as the government readies to
slash the subsidies that have kept down the cost of everything from
gasoline to flour.
Ordinary Iranians, already hard-pressed by inflation
and unemployment, are hording goods and wondering how they will get
through the month as prices of basic goods jump. The government fears
the economic dislocation could spark renewed unrest.
“They are very, very much afraid of a backlash,”
Hossein Askari, a professor of international business and relations at
George Washington University in the U.S., told The Media Line. “Whenever
they try to lift subsidies or raise taxes they’ve always have
demonstrations. There’s not much room to squeeze people further.”
The subsidiary reform gets underway at a difficult
time for Iran, which is feeling pressure on multiple fronts. Sanctions
imposed by the United Nations to block the country’s nuclear-development
efforts were tightened in June, followed by even tougher unilateral
steps by Western countries. Also, the government remains tense about
internal opposition after Iranians took the streets to challenge the
results of 2009 elections.
The subsidies, begun to help beleaguered hou… >>>
