Every year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses Iranians from the holy city of Mashhad for his Nowruz message. He discusses the main issues of the country, both domestically and internationally, and designates a slogan for the upcoming year. Khamenei designated this year as the year of the "Resistance Economy: Action and Implementation."

The “resistance economy” is a term that first came into popular use in 2014. In short, it is an economic policy that stresses a focus on domestic production, promoting a knowledge-based economy and reducing vulnerability on oil and gas exports.

After the speech, Khamenei’s website published “10 fundamental actions for rescuing the country’s economy.” The 10 steps, which were presented in chart form, listed such things as “resurrect domestic production, avoid exports that weaken domestic production, not waste money that enters the country after the nuclear deal, make sensitive and important sectors [oil, gas, airplane, train and ship manufacturing] knowledge based, make the transfer of technology a condition of foreign trade, seriously fight against corruption and give special attention to medium and small industries.”

President Hassan Rouhani has primarily viewed Iran’s struggling economy as a symptom of the international sanctions on his country over its nuclear program. Conservative Iranian politicians have argued that rather than reducing the country’s nuclear program in order to alleviate the economic pressure, Iran should focus on its own domestic capabilities, i.e., a resistance economy. It is no surprise then that a great deal of the conservative commentary after Khamenei’s speech has been focused on the “resistance economy” and the Rouhani administration's inability or lack of desire to fully implement its policies.