A member of the Iranian parliament’s budget committee Jahan Bakhsh warned on Tuesday that the country’s economy is “about to collapse.”
This came in a speech before the parliament today, according to reported by the Iranian Workers’ News Agency.
“The Iranian economy is collapsing, please be careful. We complain about the government of President Hassan Rowhani for not putting priority issues on the agenda of parliament,” Mohbeh Nia said.
Last week, President Rowhani sacked the governor of the central bank, Leila Saif, and replaced him with Abdel Nasser Hamati in an attempt to contain the parallel (black) currency market.
He pointed out that the exchange rate of one dollar reached 112 thousand riyals in the parallel market.
The fall of the local currency coincides with a sharp foreign exchange squeeze and the first US sanctions package will hit Tehran later this month.
The Iranian parliamentarian pointed to the existence of economic problems, especially unemployment and high prices, as well as health and environmental problems.
He stressed that the people facing such problems must be heard.