Iran’s economic policies lacking vision
Efforts to conceive and execute a coherent economic policy were never going to be easy, but six months into the Raisi administration, the task is growing harder because of internal disagreements over both philosophy and bureaucratic turf.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been in office for almost six months, and addressing the economic ills of the country has certainly been the government’s top priority. However, drafting appropriate policies is only one piece of a complex puzzle to improve economic conditions.
Many experts agree that one problem is the lack of a clear economic doctrine. While criticizing the era of former President Hassan Rouhani, the hardline supporters of President Raisi believed that rejecting the previous government’s “neo-liberal economic policies” would suffice as a strategy. When the Raisi cabinet took shape, top officials announced a number of populist policies such as containing inflation, creating jobs and constructing social housing.
Furthermore, Raisi not only appointed an economic manager (Mohammad Mokhber) as his first vice president, but also brought in a seasoned politician, Masoud Mir Kazemi, as vice president and head of the plan and budget organization. But surprisingly, he also appointed Mohsen Rezaei as vice president for economic affairs — a position that did not exist before. In fact, Raisi appointed Rezaei as the “secretary of the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) and coordinator of economic affairs.” ECC refers to regular meetings between the heads of the three branches of power (judiciary, Majles and government).
This multiplicity of decision-makers is seen as one cause for the lack of cohesive policies, but the inconsistencies in the government's economic team “also existed in the previous government," said Mohsen Alizadeh, member of the Majles economic commission. He said Raisi “repeatedly pointed out that all economic decisions should be guided by the first vice president, but then gave some responsibilities to the minister of economy and also transferred authority to the vice president on economic affairs.”
