Economy, Domestic Economy
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No Reverting to Economic Policies of 1980s

No Reverting to Economic Policies of 1980s
No Reverting to Economic Policies of 1980s

One of the wonders in this day and age, in Iran, is the formation of a taskforce to intensify the fight against hoarding to help maintain market balance by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade. 
Words such as “hoarding”, which had dropped out of market discourse in recent years, along with certain economic policies devised during the 1980s seem to be making a comeback these days, the Persian weekly Tejarat-e Farda reported.
In the 80s, people in Iran were witness to the gradual decline in oil revenues from around $20 billion in the fiscal 1983-84 to less than $6 billion in 1986-87. In the fiscal 1988-89, the ratio of deficit to the country’s total budget exceeded 50% and the share of capital expenditures reduced from 32% to 19%. 
The inflation rate had increased to 28% in the same year. The government’s economic intervention was at its height: Market regulation and pricing of goods were the norm; foreign exchange rates had stabilized—of course by command and control; essential goods were rationed and people were given coupons and—wait for it—black markets of different items (such as pharmaceuticals) and foreign currency trade as well as hoarding of food were growing. 

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