According to international statistics and occasional releases by the Iranian Central Bank, the sanctions have had a profound effect on Iran’s economy. Factories and companies are closing, and unemployment is rising. The value of the rial, Iran’s currency, has plummeted, and the International Monetary Fund predicts a negative growth rate this year of minus-6 percent.
“They are in desperate shape,” said Adnan Mazarei, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former deputy director at the International Monetary Fund.
There has been no systematic study of how the sanctions have affected the lives of Iranians or of whom they blame for their troubles. Americans, including journalists, rarely travel there these days. Visas are hard to get, and some U.S. citizens have been subject to arrest as alleged spies.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member