Iran’s Record-High Money Printing And Government Embezzlement – OpEd

On May 3, the state-run Bahar News website wrote, “The right to life and survival is the most important demand of Iranian workers.”

Some regime-affiliated media outlets, as a means of settling scores, interpret the regime’s claim of “approaching the peak” of economic productivity and regime president Ebrahim Raisi’s repetition of it as a return to the era of slavery in the 21st century. However, they do not explain why and how they have brought the people to this point of poverty and misery.

On May 4, Khabarfoori website quoted Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former head of the Central Bank, as saying, “Since August 2021, money printing has grown by 115 percent. Since the time of the Achaemenid dynasty until August 2021, the entire printed money was 5.19 quadrillion rials.  But in the past two and a half years, you have printed 6 quadrillion rials. Therefore, one of the main reasons for inflation and the increase in the exchange rate is this extensive money printing by the thirteenth government. Don’t look for other reasons. Much of this inflationary pressure and the pressure of the rising exchange rate is due to this extensive money printing of the thirteenth government.”

Of course, Hemmati does not acknowledge that the reckless printing of banknotes has skyrocketed since he took office as the head of the Central Bank and had control over the banknote printing machine. But the more important point is that the printing of banknotes is the primary and systematic method of plundering the people by the mullahs’ regime.

By printing money at an unprecedented rate, the regime is draining the pocket of every Iranian. With every unbacked rial printed, the value of the money in people’s pockets diminishes. It means that moment by moment, the money and livelihood of the people flow into the pockets of the regime and its agents. This process has been accelerating year by year.

In 2011, the minimum wage for workers was over 3.03 million rials, which was approximately equivalent to 303 dollars. In 2024, the minimum wage for workers has been set at 70 million rials, which, at the current exchange rate, is approximately 110 dollars. This means that in 2011, workers received three times the salary compared to today. This is only at the beginning of the year, and it is predicted that by the end of 2024, the exchange rate will reach 1million rials per dollar.

As a result, workers and the general population in Iran must work 12 hours, 15 hours, or even more to survive and secure their basic needs. The economic value they create is partially directed into the pockets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has a grip on the country’s economy, and a significant portion of it is spent on suppressing and oppressing the people, including the workers themselves.

The Iranian Resistance has stressed on multiple occasions that the authority of the IRGC and the regime over Iran’s economy is part of a flawed cycle that results in the destruction of industries, agriculture, the environment, the banking system, and severe recession in the consumer market. In this cycle, the regime, and its agents, along with the Revolutionary Guards, engage in plundering the economy to finance their repressive machinery and war efforts, while preventing the fulfillment of the society’s needs.

This brutal exploitation leads to people’s dissatisfaction and the emergence of protests. But in response, the regime intensifies repression to suppress the uprisings, while further looting the country’s economy to finance their oppressive machinery and warmongering efforts. This creates even more limitations on fulfilling the society’s needs and the country’s infrastructure. It is a cycle of escalating economic destruction and at the same time explains why the uprisings are unstoppable.

To break this vicious cycle and cut short the hands of plunder and oppression of the ruling clerics and the IRGC, there is no way other than a revolutionary uprising and overthrowing the regime. This is the path that the Resistance Units are pursuing.