Ibrahim Raisi Orders ‘Strategic Reserve’ of Essential Goods

Concurrent with the renewed surge in “the price of the US dollar in Iran’s market” and the circulation of news about the submission of a draft resolution condemning the Islamic Republic to the Board of Governors, Ibrahim Raisi has issued orders to several government agencies to pursue the provision and “strategic reserve” of essential goods.

The head of the thirteenth government of the Islamic Republic on Tuesday, the seventeenth of Khordad, tasked the ministers of industry, mines and trade as well as agriculture jihad to identify obstacles facing the implementation of the “program for provision and reserves of essential goods” and, in coordination with Mohammad Makhber, his first deputy, take steps to “remove” them.

Based on a report released by the Iranian Presidency’s media office, in a meeting chaired by Ibrahim Raisi and attended by the first deputy of the president, ministers of economic affairs and finance, agriculture jihad, roads and urban development, industry, mines and trade, defense and support of the armed forces, and heads of the Central Bank and the Planning and Budget Organization, the level of “reserves of essential goods in the country” was described as having a “favorable status.”

On Monday evening, the nineteenth of Esfand, Ibrahim Raisi announced through a live television interview on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the elimination of “preferential currency – 4200 tomans” and said that the inflationary effects of this decision would be offset by providing an “electronic commodity slip” that would be distributed later.

While government officials of the Islamic Republic speak of the “favorable status” of “essential goods storage” warehouses in the country and simultaneously issue orders for the “provision and reserve” of the same, in the past month and following the “price liberalization” of these same goods, reports indicate that the public’s purchasing power for many of these goods has declined.

Behrouz Chaharaineh, head of the nationwide federation of agricultural cooperatives of broiler chicken producers, said to the “Shargh” newspaper in Tehran on the ninth of Khordad that “the new economic policies of Ibrahim Raisi’s government” have caused “domestic purchases to decrease by up to 35 percent” and the price of chicken in Iran is higher than in “neighboring countries.”

Amireza Sabetpay, head of the Federation of Food Industries of Iran, also told the “ILNA” news agency that “following price increases,” the sales of food industry products in the country has been “halved,” and with a 40 percent increase in the price of chicken, eggs and bread, as well as the formation of campaigns not to buy products, “food industry sales have decreased by 50 percent.”

For this reason, some analysts believe that the issuance of such orders for the “stockpiling” of essential goods by the officials of the Islamic Republic goes beyond the country’s current needs and is related to some major political developments or possible future international decisions concerning Iran.

This is while the “Reuters” news agency reported on Tuesday about the text of a “draft resolution” written by the governments of the United States, Britain, Germany, and France and addressed to the “Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency” criticizing the Islamic Republic for “not fully responding” to the questions of this organization regarding the “discovery of uranium particles” at “previously undeclared” sites.

On the other side, Iran’s economy and market sector have also experienced concerns about the impact of the Islamic Republic’s again controversial nuclear programs, to the extent that the exchange rate of each US dollar to Iranian rials accelerated in the past week, initially to more than 300,000 rials, then entering the range of 310,000 rials and now reaching the figure of 320,000 rials, which is the highest record from Azar of last year to now.