Protests over rising prices spread across Iran as students join demonstrations
Tehran: Protests triggered by Iran’s worsening economic conditions spread to universities and commercial centres on Tuesday. Students joined shopkeepers and traders in demonstrations against soaring prices and the sharp fall of the national currency, according to semi-official media reports.
The unrest comes as the Iranian rial hit a record low, sliding to around 1.4 million against the US dollar on the open market, according to a Reuters. The currency has lost nearly half its value this year, while inflation reached 42.5 per cent in December, official data showed.
Semi-official Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students staged protests at four universities in Tehran. Footage verified by Reuters showed groups of demonstrators marching through streets in the capital, chanting slogans, while state television broadcast images of gatherings in central areas of the city.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said late on Monday that he had instructed the interior minister to engage with protesters and listen to what he described as their legitimate demands. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities would set up a dialogue mechanism that could include talks with protest leaders.
“We officially recognise the protests. We hear the voices of the people and understand that these demonstrations stem from pressure on livelihoods,” Mohajerani said in remarks carried by state media.
On social media platforms, several Iranians expressed support for the protests, warning that public anger over rising prices, corruption and economic inequality could spread further across the country.
Iran’s economy has been under strain for years following the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018 after Washington withdrew from the international nuclear agreement. United Nations sanctions were reinstated in September, and Reuters reported in October that senior officials had held multiple meetings to discuss ways to prevent economic collapse and manage public discontent.
President Pezeshkian, speaking at a meeting with trade unions and market representatives on Tuesday, said the government would make efforts to address economic grievances and ease concerns faced by workers and traders, according to state media.
On Monday, Iran’s central bank chief resigned, with local media linking the move to pressure on the currency market following recent economic liberalisation policies.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
