Monday 04 October 2021

Etemad : Astronomical Distance from Sixth Plan Targets

Etemad newspaper has published a report by the Statistics Center on its economic page, which examines in detail economic variables in the first quarter of the current calendar year. The daily writes: In part of the report, a comparison is made between the number of the variables at the end of the year 1399 (2020-2021) and what should have been achieved in the Sixth Development Plan, based on which the gap between the inflation rate and economic growth in 1399 and what has been stipulated in the Sixth Development Plan is more than other economic variables, as such that the inflation rate which was supposed to reach 8.8 percent, is reported at 36.4 percent…. But another point that the report mentions is the inability to properly understand the functioning of the country’s economy at the time of crisis and uncertainty of the time of recovery; that is to say, the policymaker does not know what exact impacts of external tensions are on the economy…

Etemad, at the end of the quotations regarding the report of the Statistics Center, asks the question: When will economic growth reach the Sixth Plan forecasts?

The country’s economy was expected to achieve a growth of 8% by the end of this year. Although the economic growth of 1399 was declared positive 1 after a long period of being negative, this does not reduce the meaningful gap between economic growth in 1400 and 1399. Of course, some experts hope that economic growth will increase this year, but even in the most optimistic forecast, economic growth will not reach 8%. Inflation, along with economic growth, is another variable that cannot reach what has been anticipated for this year.

Arman Melli: Do you realize that Russia and China do not take a stand against the siege of Iran?

Arman Melli newspaper with the above headline has examined the latest stance of the President of Azerbaijan and in an interview with Jalal Khoshchehreh, an international affairs analyst, surveyed positions that countries in the region have taken towards Iran.

Arman asks the question: Why so many countries in the region are standing against Iran in recent years?

And Khoshchehreh responds that there are usually two views in Iran’s foreign policy. One view has been revisionist and the other has been interactive. Unfortunately, the revisionist sector has prevailed today and caused us to waste a lot of time. This has led us to adopt a policy of confrontation. In recent years, Iran has been forced to have interaction only in difficult circumstances. Such limited and framed interactions have also entailed less of the desired results. This mistake has made our approach to the countries to which we are closer to become security oriented, so that we cannot benefit economically. Another mistake we have made is that our view of the world is black and white, and obviously that needs to be changed. An effective component of this black and white view is the relationship with the United States and Israel, and this zero-sum approach has caused us not to have good relations even with our neighbors. Today, Iran’s influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Caucasus is not increasing due to those policies….

He continued: Obviously, the deterioration of our relations with Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan is due to this black and white view. Last year, we defended the Republic of Azerbaijan in a big mistake. Our reason was that the Republic of Azerbaijan is a Muslim country, but Armenia is a Christian country. The fact is that ideology plays a lesser role in the geopolitical world. What matters is the national interest and benefits. Last year, those who were happy with the victory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, today have realized that they have been negligent. They neglected in that the important partner of the Republic of Azerbaijan is Israel, and they neglected the fact that they may have a plan to contain Iran….

Khoshchehreh said: Israel was the first state to recognize the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Seven months later, Baku also recognized Israel. Israel has been active in the Republic of Azerbaijan ever since. How did we not realize at that time so that today there would not be much concern? We could not use our soft power and diplomacy in such a way that the Republic of Azerbaijan would not become a threat for Iran. To this day, we have been completely oblivious to the economic potential of the Caucasus. Today, Turkey benefits more from the Armenian economy than Iran. The  same Turkey that is practically the enemy of Armenia.

Kayhan: Korean Home Appliances Are Imported Through Border Smugglers

On its front page, Kayhan newspaper quoted Fars News Agency as saying that on Saturday, despite the ban on the import of Group 4 goods and the president’s strict order banning the import of Korean home appliances, there was evidence showing that such goods receive registration order from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and are cleared through customs. …

Kayhan then continues: However, Kayhan reporter asked the technical deputy of the Customs Department to comment on the details of the incident and Mehrdad Jamal Arvanaghi confirmed the issue of importing Korean goods and claimed that those goods are imported by border smugglers. Of course, he was unaware of the exact statistics of the volume of imports from such routes… 

The newspaper wrote: It is worth mentioning that in this regard, Hossein Fattahi, a manufacturer of home appliances, stating that only 1 billion and 300 million dollars of home appliances have been imported into the country noted: So the market is not currently monopolized by domestic producers, and it is the smuggled goods that are circulating in the market.

It should be noted that the Supreme Leader recently issued an order banning import of home appliances from South Korea.