Economy & Environment

Iran's handwoven carpet exports, once worth nearly $2.5 billion annually, have now "virtually stopped," a provincial industry official said, reflecting the steep decline of one of the country's best-known exports.

As prices continue to soar across Iran, hardline clerics and pro-government figures are increasingly attempting to shift blame away from the state even as economic pressure deepens for ordinary citizens.

Prices for some medicines in Iran have surged by as much as 400% and pharmacies are struggling to supply critical drugs to patients, a pharmacists’ association official said on Sunday.

The war has pushed relations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates close to rupture, disrupting one of the region’s most important commercial relationships and leaving ordinary Iranians who built lives and businesses caught in the fallout.

Iran’s water crisis is not only about scarcity or drought. It is also about where the Islamic Republic chooses to spend the country’s money, and what it leaves unfunded at home.

Rising fertilizer prices and shortages of basic work equipment are squeezing Iranian farmers, laborers and small business owners as inflation, unemployment and falling purchasing power deepen during the fragile ceasefire.

The US-Israel war with Iran has delivered bumper profits for major oil, banking and defense companies, even as the conflict and Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz drive up costs for households, governments and businesses worldwide, the BBC reported.

Over 27,000 workers at the Mobarakeh Steel Company – Iran's largest steel producer – remain in limbo following missile strikes that have paralyzed production at the sprawling Isfahan complex, according to the news site Rouydad24.

Chinese companies continue to ship drone-related parts and other dual-use goods to Iran and Russia despite US sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing customs data, former US officials and weapons analysts.

Iran’s labor-focused news agency ILNA has pushed back against government efforts to downplay the economic impact of the recent conflict, citing experts who warn that actual unemployment figures far exceed official estimates.

Iranians described layoffs, unpaid wages and rising food and medical costs in messages to Iran International, while labor market data and local media reports pointed to a widening employment shock after the ceasefire.

Iranian media are now openly discussing the war’s impact on livelihoods—a subject largely avoided until recently, when journalists resorted to indirect language to navigate censorship.

Iran has begun curbing oil production as the US naval blockade tightens around its oil trade, with exports plunging, storage filling and tankers gathering near the country’s main export hub, Bloomberg reported.

Rising prices for essential goods, inflation above 73%, and a surging dollar amid a fragile “no war, no peace” environment, US naval pressure, and political divisions have heightened concerns among some officials about internal instability.

The next phase of the Iran–US standoff may be decided not on the battlefield, but by how much economic pressure each side can withstand.

Medicine prices in Iran have surged sharply in recent weeks, with some drugs rising by as much as 380%, according to reports received by Iran International, as the country grapples with soaring inflation, a collapsing currency and worsening wartime disruption.

Iran’s worsening economic crisis is drawing unusually blunt warnings from state media and establishment voices as war, inflation and shortages squeeze households and expose the limits of the government’s response.

The US dollar passed 1.81 million rials on Iran’s open market on Wednesday, rising nearly 8% in a single day as the country’s economic crisis worsened under the strain of maritime blockade, stalled diplomacy and mounting pressure on households.