Page 21 - IRANRptFeb22

US sanctions, a report issued by the Sanctions and Security Project said Washington’s "maximum pressure" campaign—introduced by the former Trump administration—that imposed crippling sanctions to hurt the Iranian economy and challenge Tehran's regional role was a "weapon" that had only succeeded in making life for Iranians more difficult.
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and author of the report, told Middle East Eye that it was clear that sanctions, often seen as an alternative to military confrontation, had triggered persistent high inflation which "led to a marked increase in poverty" in Iran. "As much as it is possible to boil everything down to one impact that tells the whole story, inflation ends up being that one impact," the publication cited him as saying.
Since in May 2018, then US president Donald Trump announced he had decided to reimpose wide-ranging and swingeing US sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the Iranian rial (IRR) has sunk to around 270,000 to the dollar. In 2015, when the nuclear deal, or JCPOA, was signed by Iran and six major powers, 32,000 rials bought $1.
The price of basic food items such as milk, yoghurt and eggs has soared by more than 150%, while the cost of healthcare has jumped by around 125%. Batmanghelidj said that wages in Iran had remained steady throughout the period of sanctions driving up inflation, but did not match the realities of the cost of inflated prices and the severely depreciated currency.
Iran’s government last year claimed US sanctions had caused $1 trillion worth of damage to the country's economy.
The report observed: "Although no sanctions were imposed on food imports, this drop in the Rial seriously affected the affordability of food.
"Because the Central Bank did not have clear access to foreign exchange reserves, it could not meet the demand to provide hard currency to importers of the tons of animal feed on which the production of meat, eggs and dairy products depends."
4.2.2 PPI dynamics
Iran’s ‘Shamekh’ PMI back in positive territory
Iran’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI), known by its Persian acronym Shamekh, moved up to 55.55 in the seventh Persian calendar month (Shahrivar, running from August 23–September 22), Iran Chamber announced on October 11.
The Statistics and Economic Analysis Centre of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture—the sponsor and coordinator of the survey—said that despite an uptick in industrial production, strong inflationary pressures were still a stress on manufacturing in the country, with wholesale prices of goods and materials increasing sharply due to the rigid devaluation of the rial (IRR) under US sanctions and supply chain shortages in the global economy.
The PMI sub-index for “business activities” rallied to 57.64 in the latest concluded Persian month, the highest recorded for four months. It previously declined for two consecutive months due to impacts stemming from the onset of the sixth wave of coronavirus in Iran.
The “New orders” sub-index hit 57.43, the highest level seen since the Iranian PMI reading was first calculated two years ago.
21 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com