Autumn of Jobs Amidst Rising Prices; Restaurant Owners on the Brink of Bankruptcy

Iranian media have reported the continuation of inflationary conditions in the country, declaring this trend a threat to various professions, including the restaurant industry. According to ILNA news agency, only in the city of Shiraz, the licenses of 30 well-known restaurants have been revoked in recent months. ILNA also noted that new tricks employed by restaurants to attract customers, such as reducing food portions and prices, have not been effective, leading citizens to eliminate dining out on weekends or limiting their restaurant visits to once a month. In this context, a member of the Shiraz Union of Restaurants and Traditional Cafes referred to value-added tax as a 'double curse,' stating that citizens do not connect with this tax. Ali Akbar Ghavi-Panjah emphasized that due to multiple problems, these restaurants are closing day by day. According to this union official, the cost per person in a regular restaurant in Shiraz is 500,000 tomans, meaning a family of four must pay over 2 million tomans for a meal. These remarks come at a time when the minimum wage in Iran is 5 million and 308 thousand tomans, and a married person with children, if receiving all wages and benefits, will have a monthly income of about 9 million tomans. This situation is prevalent in all cities across the country, and warnings about it have been issued for months. In May of this year, the owner of a well-known restaurant brand in Tehran told the 'Khabar Online' website that 55% of Tehran's restaurants are unintentionally heading towards bankruptcy. Nader Raftari stated, 'Now that the prices of raw materials and rents have increased, people's purchasing power decreases, and we will see a severe wave of this happening next month across the country, forcing restaurants and similar businesses to close.' This brand owner in Iran emphasized that restaurants, whether they sell or not, still have to pay for assets, insurance, etc., and as a result, 'we will witness closures in the coming months.' Today, however, inflation continues its upward trend, and new data from the 'Statistical Center of Iran' shows that 'red meat' had a '93% inflation rate' in Bahman 1402, making it the highest among 10 essential food items whose prices were examined. The consumer price index for Bahman indicates that over the 12 months ending in Bahman this year, the prices of all 10 subgroups related to food and beverages have been 'rising.' Accordingly, food inflation in Bahman this year was recorded 'between 22 to 93 percent,' leading to an average annual inflation rate for this group reaching '45.1 percent,' which is '2.6 percent' higher than the overall average inflation. Given these statistics, experts and stakeholders in the restaurant industry believe that more restaurant closures and bankruptcies are to be expected. The head of the restaurant union stated: restaurant owners are on the brink of bankruptcy; inflation is taking away jobs; 'fast food' businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy; 17,000 financial debtors have been banned from leaving the country.