As commodities in Iran are experiencing price jumps, costs of two electronic goods, namely laptops and tablets, have remained more or less untouched by the tumultuous economic circumstances, with market insiders attributing the steady prices to market stagnation.
The largely "stable" laptop and tablet market in Iran prompted ILNA to interview a market insider on the reasons behind the consistency of prices of the two gadgets.
Peyman Iravani, a member of Iran Information Technology Union, explained why the prices have remained flat, saying laptops and tablets are no longer among the items average Iranians purchase.
Iravani said, "When someone is having troubles buying essential goods, they would not consider purchasing laptops or tablets."
Not having enough money to spend on an upgrade, "people prefer to work with the old devices they already have," he added.
Iravani said the prices of certain essential goods have tripled in the past couple of months, and many had predicted that the same would happen with tablets and laptops. "However, the gadgets have been outright omitted from the items purchased by many."
Following US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the rial started to lose value against the USD, convincing the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to unify the dollar rate at 42,000 rials to curb its rising trend.
Moreover, to regulate imports and save the dwindling foreign currency reserves from exhaustion, the government developed an online system for businesses to announce their currency needs and be allocated their required currency.
>Subsidized Currency
A handful of importers of laptops and tablets received the 42,000 rials currency assigned by the government, but according to Iravani, the subsidized currency had its impact on the market and prevented a price hike.
Iravani said, "Even the products brought into the country with hard currencies acquired at free market rates did not see an increase in costs since market prices are an average of all prices."
The imports of laptops and tablets have not attracted much government-allocated foreign currency. Based on Iravani's remarks, during the year which ended in March 2018, companies brought $30 million worth of tablets and laptops into the country on a monthly basis.
The union member maintains that in the first five months of the current fiscal, firms bringing laptops into Iran have been allocated €35 million and importers of tablets €4 million in the form of subsidized hard currencies, of which €15 million have already been used for bringing the aforementioned commodities into the country.
Iravani also noted that the allocated subsidized foreign currency constitutes 10% of the needs of the market, but that it was enough to keep prices n check.
As of August 7, the government has stopped allocating subsidized currency to electronics, labeling them non-essential goods that can be imported with USD at the free market rate. Currently, the USD rate stands at 123,000 rials.
It merits mention that the past two weeks have seen an uptick in tablet and laptop prices, as the shortage of products is finally taking a toll on the markets.
Iravani said while they are glad that the prices have not increased as much as expectations, with hundreds working in the sector, 100,000 families are directly affected by what happens in the market, and if prices do not adjust to the current USD rate, many will be put at a disadvantage.
