Iranian officials say the country’s economy is resilient and would survive even if talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal collapse.
TEHRAN—U.S. sanctions on Iran have battered the country’s economy, causing unemployment to soar and its currency to plummet, which has helped stoke public unrest in recent years.
Iran’s economic output has suffered. Its GDP per capita halved from when the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions to last year, according to the World Bank. Inflation has risen. Iran’s currency, the rial, dropped sharply since last week in reaction to a deadlock in the nuclear talks, trading around an all-time low level. The World Bank expects Iran’s public debt to surpass 50% of GDP this year.
against Iran as diplomatic efforts to restore the nuclear deal falter. They said the U.S. will send a top-level delegation next week to the United Arab Emirates, a top U.S. ally but also Iran’s second-largest trade partner and a conduit for Iran’s trade and financial transactions with other countries, to warn private firms and banks there that they “face extreme risk” if sanctioned trade continues.
The protests encapsulate a deeper problem for Mr. Raisi, who has pledged to diversify Iran’s economy and create nearly two million jobs by March 2023 to help ease the country’s economic crisis. The water protests followed a wave of unrest across the country. Thousands of workers at government-owned petrochemical plants in southern Iran went on strike in June, demanding better wages and improved working conditions.