Iran’s Next Budget Assumes No Nuclear Deal

On Dec. 12, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi submitted his proposed budget to parliament for the Iranian year 2022-23, which begins in March. According to the initial numbers, Tehran appears to assume that nothing will emerge from the nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria, and that the country will not be any more successful than it has been at evading US sanctions, reads an article published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Excerpts follow:
For instance, the 2021-22 budget assumed oil exports of 2.3 million barrels per day, but the proposed new budget assumes just 1.2 million, a projection that is at best equal to and more likely less than Iran’s recent estimated exports. That decrease is partly offset by the new budget’s assumed 20% rise in the dollar price of oil, and by plans to fully phase out the official rial exchange rate of IRR 42,000 per dollar in favor of the market rate of about IRR 300,000 per dollar...