The price of chicken and milk in Iran has doubled from a month ago, while the price of cooking oil has quadrupled since May amid soaring inflation that has triggered weeks of protests.
Shop owners, teachers, pensioners and others have been taking to the streets to demand that pay and pensions are adjusted to match sharply rising prices.
US sanctions, the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and, more recently, a global food crisis caused in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are some of the factors contributing to the price increases.
“Latest Iranian inflation numbers are out, and they are brutal,” Henry Rome, an economist at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy, wrote on Twitter.
“Point-to-point has risen to 52.5 per cent (up from 39.3 per cent last month),” he said, citing figures released by the Iranian government.
President Ebrahim Raisi, who took office in August, has vowed to bring inflation down to below 15 per cent by next year.
The World Bank puts annual inflation at 40.7 per cent and predicts that it will fall by only a few points in coming years.
Last week, Labour Minister Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki resigned after widespread criticism for poor handling of labour market and pension issues.
The riyal has lost about 60 per cent of its value since January 2020.
State media outlets such as Press TV are highlighting growth in Iran’s economy, such as the 4.1 per cent increase in GDP in the last quarter of 2021.
“Iranian oil sales have rebounded in recent months with authorities reporting increased exports to China and elsewhere since October,” Press TV reported this month.
But, Iranians such as Ali, a 50-year-old butcher, are not seeing any positive effects from this.
“You may not believe me, but sometimes I don’t eat meat for a week,” Ali told AFP.
“Everything has gone up in price,” he said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson
Profile
Neil Thomson – THE BIO
Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.
Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.
Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.
Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.
Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
One in four Americans don't plan to retire
Nearly a quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals' retirement plans and the realities of ageing in the workforce.
Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they'd like.
According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research, 23 per cent of workers, including nearly two in 10 of those over 50, don't expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.
According to government data, about one in five people 65 and older was working or actively looking for a job in June. The study surveyed 1,423 adults in February this year.
For many, money has a lot to do with the decision to keep working.
"The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn't gone up that much," says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College. "So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement."
When asked how financially comfortable they feel about retirement, 14 per cent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29 per cent over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared, according to the poll. About another four in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared.
"One of the things about thinking about never retiring is that you didn't save a whole lot of money," says Ronni Bennett, 78, who was pushed out of her job as a New York City-based website editor at 63.
She searched for work in the immediate aftermath of her layoff, a process she describes as akin to "banging my head against a wall." Finding Manhattan too expensive without a steady stream of income, she eventually moved to Portland, Maine. A few years later, she moved again, to Lake Oswego, Oregon. "Sometimes I fantasise that if I win the lottery, I'd go back to New York," says Ms Bennett.
