From hoarding to unemployment: Iran's economy buckles under US pressure
Iran's fast-rising inflation is driving aggressive state market controls, exposing deeper structural strains from war, sanctions and declining consumer confidence.
TEHRAN — Following the recent conflict with the United States and Israel, the Iranian government has been scrambling to manage the economy under a wartime logic, with inflation being treated as a security threat and markets being seen as battlegrounds.
With year-on-year food inflation for staples such as rice, edible oils and sugar rising into triple digits — according to official statistics — authorities have launched a sweeping crackdown on what they describe as hoarding, overpricing and economic sabotage. Police inspections, judiciary cases and intelligence-linked seizures have become routine features of market management, with tens of thousands of violations and millions of dollars in fines reported in the past fortnight.
Behind the enforcement drive lies an economy under sustained external pressure, where the US maritime blockade, disrupted trade flows and currency volatility are increasingly transmitted into domestic instability.
The state is no longer merely trying to regulate prices; it is seeking to contain economic breakdown through coercive governance tools.
