Iran facing economic uncertainty

Iran’s far-right regime believes that China is the future, and it wants to be untethered from relying on the West. But the West is perhaps weathering the economic storm better and also has different pandemic policies geared to opening up, while China is closing down. Iran didn’t count on this, and now it is facing real troubles.

Video of clashes and protests over the past week are only one part of the Iranian economic problem. Because Iran crushes dissent, it is hard to know if the videos reflect widespread discontent. What we can measure is that even Iranian media outlets, especially those affiliated with the IRGC, are no longer talking about missiles and drones but are droning on about economic issues. For instance, the semi-official Fars News Agency published an article about subsidies for basic products such as oil and eggs.