Rouhani Defends Government's Economic Performance Again

Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, on Sunday, April 6, defended his government's performance, deeming some positive economic indicators in Iran as 'unprecedented.' Rouhani also called on all branches, institutions, and armed forces to come forward for the 'prosperity of the country,' while stating that all agencies and armed forces must import goods 'under the precise and complete supervision of customs.' According to the state news agency IRNA, speaking at the first cabinet meeting of the year 1396 (Iranian calendar), he announced that in the coming days he would issue a 'framework and guidelines for implementing' the Supreme Leader's directives regarding 'resilient economy.' Rouhani defended his government's performance by stating that achieving double-digit economic growth, single-digit inflation, and creating 700,000 jobs in the year 1395 (2016) had been 'unprecedented in the last 25 years.' However, several economists have expressed doubts about the accuracy of these figures. Some media outlets have also reported on rising prices, factory closures, and increasing unemployment rates. According to IRNA, the Iranian President also urged all agencies that received shares of certain state companies in exchange for their debts to the government to transfer these shares to the people so that the country's economy could become 'truly popular and private.' Rouhani's remarks and his renewed defense of his government's economic performance came at a time when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, had criticized the government's economic performance several times in the months leading up to the presidential elections, expressing doubts about the accuracy of the government's statistics. He designated the new year as 'Resilient Economy: Production, Employment' and stated that there was 'a significant gap between the work done and the expectations of the people and the leadership.' Hours after Khamenei's Nowruz message, Rouhani, in a speech defending his government's performance, stated that 'even ten subsequent governments will not be able to solve all the problems,' but that his government had chosen a 'correct' path towards reducing issues. He also informed the Supreme Leader in a letter that his government has a 'deep' belief in the policies of 'resilient economy,' which has resulted in 'significant growth in domestic production.' This comes as some Friday prayer leaders in various cities criticized the government's economic performance during the first Friday prayer of the new year and at the end of the previous year. According to IRNA, in another part of his speech, Rouhani referred to the Supreme Leader's remarks about the necessity of combating smuggling, stating that imports by all government, private, and armed forces should be 'conducted under the precise and complete supervision of customs using modern and accurate devices.' On the first of Farvardin, Khamenei called for a 'decisive and fundamental confrontation' with smuggling, stating that 'a large volume of smuggling enters the country through official channels and free zones.' This was stated while Ali Tayebnia, the Minister of Economy, had previously said that 'the majority of smuggling, meaning over 70 percent of it,' occurs through unofficial channels and without customs supervision. In 1394 (2015), Rouhani, without naming any specific institution or organization, stated: 'A corrupt agency that... can bring in smuggled goods does not allow the country to grow.' Previously, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former President of Iran, had implicitly referred to the Revolutionary Guards as 'smuggling brothers.' A day after this criticism, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, emphasized that his command 'like other military institutions, has military ports at its disposal, but no commercial transactions are conducted there.' According to IRNA, the Iranian President also stated on Sunday that 'supervisory institutions must also exercise precise oversight over activities, but they must ensure that their oversight does not interfere in executive matters, as the mixing of oversight and execution creates problems for production, employment, and managers, preventing them from working powerfully and effectively.' Rouhani also implicitly criticized the judiciary on Saturday, stating: 'With effort and pleading, we bring someone here to invest, and for a minor issue, someone suddenly decides to summon him. It is not possible to work.' He also asked the judiciary to 'provide statistics to the people regarding the actions taken in support of production and investment.' The issue of insecurity for investors has also been raised by government officials, including Mahmoud Alavi, the Minister of Intelligence, who stated last September: 'Whenever a potential corruption issue arises, there are sometimes summonses, arrests, and confrontations, and then we expect a resilient economy.' The World Bank, in its 2017 report on the 'business environment,' ranked Iran 120th among 190 countries regarding the conditions necessary to facilitate economic activity.