Internet users in Tehran and several other provinces reported outages and unstable connections Tuesday amid uncertainty over renewed US military action, after the New York Times reported that Washington could launch strikes on Iran as early as Wednesday.
Iranians responding to an Iran International appeal said they could not afford emergency supplies or had nowhere safe to go if wider war resumes with the United States and Israel, with others describing exhaustion after repeated rounds of fighting.
Qatar is securing long-term supplies of US liquefied natural gas to protect revenues against disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, while pursuing mediation between Tehran and Washington to end the war.
People across Iran say they are struggling to afford food, clothing and rent, while others face unpaid wages and falling business sales, according to messages sent to Iran International as year-on-year inflation hit 88.7% in October.
Young Iranians are turning from opium, their parents’ drug, to cannabis, methamphetamine and a widening range of synthetic substances, treatment specialists and officials say, as unemployment, hardship and uncertainty about the future reshape the country’s drug use.
Iran could face an economic contraction comparable in scale to the Great Depression in the United States, economists say, as the loss of oil revenue and wartime disruption threaten to drive an ailing economy into a deeper crisis.
Iran’s monthly inflation rate stood at 4.4% in the Iranian month of Mehr (September 23–October 22), while prices were 88.7% higher than a year earlier, the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) said on Wednesday, adding that the 12-month average inflation rate reached 76.8%.
Iran’s budget planners are considering oil at $130 per barrel for the next Iranian year even as the conflict driving global prices higher has severely restricted Tehran’s ability to export crude.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed joint oil and gas projects in Moscow on Tuesday, as Tehran seeks closer economic ties with Russia while its energy exports remain squeezed by a US naval blockade.
Iran could lose up to 1.4 million jobs this year if its economy contracts by seven to eight percent, a senior Labor Ministry official said on Tuesday, estimating that around 2.5 million people are already unemployed.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with Iran International, warned Iranians to stock up on gasoline and heating fuel ahead of expected shortages, predicting the economy would shrink by more than a quarter in the year ending March 2027.
Two retired employees of Iran's national airline died after being forced to abandon medical treatment they could not afford, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Monday, citing the head of the airline's retirees' association.
Flour shortages have forced bakeries to close in several Iranian cities and pushed up bread prices, with residents and bakers reporting disrupted supplies, falling purchasing power and growing uncertainty over their businesses.
Iranians say they are paying more for slow, unreliable and heavily restricted internet after mobile operators raised data prices by up to 40%, with some reporting that their allowances run out unusually quickly.
Iran still has the knowhow, middlemen and shadow-fleet infrastructure it spent years developing to sell sanctioned oil to China. But it has now run out of oil outside Iran to put through that system.
China's imports of oil recorded as Malaysian have plunged alongside the collapse of Iranian exports under the US naval blockade, suggesting how heavily Iran relied on relabeling its crude for its biggest customer.
Border closures and transit disruptions involving Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey are raising fears that Iran’s remaining trade routes could be further restricted, deepening the impact of US maritime and air restrictions.
Repeated economic and political crises are eroding Iranians' belief that their lives can improve, with official figures showing declining social capital, widespread perceptions of injustice and deepening distrust of the government.
Iran's LPG exports have collapsed since the US naval blockade began in mid-July, leaving Tehran to find domestic uses for millions of tons of propane and butane that would normally be sold abroad.
Germany’s financial regulator BaFin said on Thursday that Bank Saderat Iran’s Hamburg branch had lost its banking license and must be wound up. The branch, which operated in Hamburg and Frankfurt, is no longer allowed to conduct banking business.
Land in parts of Iran’s southeastern Kerman province is sinking by as much as 40 centimeters a year, with ground fissures advancing toward villages, homes and orchards, according to data cited on Wednesday by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Trade between Iran and Pakistan remained suspended at two major border crossings on Tuesday, leaving trucks and cargo stranded, with Pakistani authorities citing security and anti-smuggling measures and Iran pointing to technical difficulties.