Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, April 13, 2012

Government as responder

One popular comparative politics text is sub-titled, Domestic Responses to Global Challenges. That certainly describes part of the situation in Iran. How will the government deal with the problems? Blaming the US and Western powers won't feed anyone or buy them cooking oil or fuel.

Iran’s official inflation climbs to 21.5 percent

Iran’s official inflation rate has almost doubled over the past year as prices are driven up by budget reforms, a weak currency and international sanctions…

Inflation in urban areas was 21.5 percent for the last Iranian year which ended on March 19, the central bank said in a statement…

Many Iranians believe real inflation is much higher than the official rate, and some clerics and lawmakers have accused the government of providing incorrect figures.

Inflation has been rising relentlessly from a low of 8.8 percent in August 2010…

But prices have also been hit, indirectly, by a tightening of international sanctions…

The sanctions, led by Washington and Europe, have frozen Iran out of much of the global trading system in the last several months, forcing importers to use more expensive channels to obtain food and intermediate and consumer goods…