Two Chinese state-controlled shipping companies have stopped sending oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, instead loading crude outside the Persian Gulf amid heightened security risks, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing industry sources and shipping data.
Donald Trump’s maximum pressure is usually scored by counting tankers and tracking the rial, but Iran’s budget points to a deeper cost: more than $80 billion in NIOC bank debt and sovereign-fund arrears, repeatedly deferred as Iranians shoulder the burden.
Iran’s government is considering three proposals to curb gasoline consumption as war damage, import difficulties and a widening gap between domestic production and demand put growing pressure on fuel supplies.
Iran says its non-oil trade has fallen by around 30% since the war began, but figures from several of its biggest trading partners point to far steeper declines in some of the country’s most important commercial relationships.
The aborted move in Kerman Province revived one of the most politically explosive questions in Iran: how to curb gasoline consumption without repeating the upheaval that followed the last major nationwide price increase in 2019.
The Caspian Sea is falling by as much as 20 centimeters a year and stands at its lowest level in two centuries, an Iranian environment official said, a warning that lands just as Tehran reopens the argument over how to divide a sea that is shrinking on all five of its owners.
Replacing a single ship carrying essential goods to Iran would require about 2,500 trucks, a Chamber of Commerce official warned, saying land routes cannot offset the US maritime blockade and negotiations are the only realistic way to restore trade.
A plan to sell petrol at a much higher “refinery cost” rate in southern Kerman province was halted hours before it was due to begin, the provincial fuel distribution company said on Thursday.
Iranian authorities have sealed at least 42 cafés, restaurants, shops, sports clubs and other businesses across the country in the past three weeks, over compulsory hijab rules and what officials describe as violations of Islamic norms.
OPEC oil production continued its sharp post-war recovery in July, but Iran remained a notable exception, with output still around a quarter below pre-war levels and its oil revenues taking an even steeper hit.
More than eight in 10 respondents to an Iran International Instagram poll said they would leave Iran if given the opportunity, reflecting deep frustration among those who took part over the country’s economic and social conditions.
Oil has reached mangrove forests on Iran's Qeshm island while a separate vast slick spreads toward Oman's coast, raising fears of environmental damage in waters already disrupted by war.
Rising living costs have forced many Iranians to give up cafes and restaurants, turning a once-routine form of leisure into an expense increasingly squeezed out by rent, food and healthcare, messages to Iran International say.
Workers across Iran’s mining, industrial and municipal sectors say they have gone months without full pay, while some employers have also cut staff, deepening pressure on households already struggling with rising living costs.
Masoud Pezeshkian may have a claim to being Iran’s unluckiest president, with his two years in office dominated by wars that have battered an already ailing economy to the point that keeping households above subsistence would count as an achievement.
Soaring food prices are reshaping what Iranian families eat, with new figures showing a steep decline in dairy consumption alongside a longer retreat from red meat as household purchasing power erodes.
Iranians are struggling to afford medicines and medical care, with some foregoing treatment as prices rise, drug shortages spread and insurance coverage falls short, according to accounts from patients.
Average advertised monthly rent in Tehran has climbed above 720 million rials, roughly three times the earnings of many Iranian workers, exposing a widening affordability gap as some tenants face increases of up to 100%, market data showed in late July.
Nearly one million people dropped off Iran’s social security contribution rolls over the past year, a labor expert told ILNA, pointing to a sharp contraction in formal employment that he said is not reflected in the country’s official unemployment rate.
Ending the Iran war could expose the Islamic Republic to one of its greatest vulnerabilities, experts say, as Tehran confronts a battered post-war economy that may strain its ability to finance the institutions underpinning its rule.
Petty thefts of basic food items are becoming a symbol of Iran's economic hardship, according to a newspaper investigation published on Wednesday that linked supermarket shoplifting to inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
In Iran, the authorities call it a scheduled outage. The electricity will be disconnected for two hours. The water may return later in the evening. Families are instructed to adjust their lives to temporary emergencies. But there is no pause button for daily life.