TEHRAN – Against expectations for a better economic progress after an international nuclear deal with world powers, Iran’s vice president says huge backlog from previous administrations is thwarting growth. 

“Although the government has been doing its best, it has failed to compensate so far,” Is’haq Jahangiri said at a session on progress of economic projects hosted by the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Commerce. 

“A country that had been sent deep into a valley is now a few steps higher though it’s still at the bottom of the valley.”  

In making the comments, the outspoken vice president was referring to the economic mismanagement under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2013.

Inflation skyrocketed beyond 40 percent as Ahmadinejad’s second term neared its end.
  
“In 2012 and 2013, inflation and the stagnation from it reduced the people’s per capita income drastically,” Jahangiri added. 

Ahmadinejad also dissolved Management and Planning Organization in an effort to implement his own economic agenda, later on revived by President Rouhani. 

In the international arena, Ahmadinejad showed a blatant disregard for resolutions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, branding them “scraps of paper,” what Jahangiri said cost the country a huge price. 

Hassan Rouhani succeeded to control the untamed inflation in the first few months of his presidency, yet he has failed to grease the wheels of the economy. 

The cabinet has managed to reduce inflation to a low of 7.2 percent in the 10 month of the Iranian calendar (November 21-Decemebr 20).  

Also, the economy posted a 7.4-percent growth in the first half of the current year (March-September), a record high rate, itself resulting from a 2015 international nuclear deal between Tehran and five-veto holding countries of the U.S., China, Russia, England, and France, plus Germany. 

Under the deal, Iran accepted some limits on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions against the country. 

AK/PA