Economy & Environment

Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province is grappling with a worsening environmental crisis as drought and intensifying dust storms devastate the Hamoun wetlands, with experts warning of farmland collapse, forced migration and irreversible ecological damage, local media reported.

Iranian authorities are investigating fresh details in two of 173 cases of disputed land allocations in Damavand and Shemiranat, Tehran province, judicial and semi-official news agencies reported on Sunday.

Young middle-class Iranians are getting increasingly anxious about slipping into poverty, despite salaries that once signaled stability but now fail to cover even routine expenses, Iran’s reformist Shargh daily warned in a weekend report.

The uptake of Iranian oil at Chinese ports hit highs last seen before Donald Trump reentered the White House in early 2025 and revived his so-called maximum pressure campaign, tanker-tracking data obtained by Iran International reveals.

Tehran’s optimism about fresh Chinese and Russian investment may be more aspirational than realistic.

The US State Department, in a rare comment on Iran’s domestic financial policy, criticized a new law imposing capital gains taxes on real estate, vehicles, foreign currency, precious metals and cryptocurrencies, saying it would add to citizens’ hardships.

A farmer hanged himself on Monday outside the local agriculture department headquarters in Kahnuj in southeastern Iran in protest over mounting economic pressures, local rights group Haalvsh reported.

Chicken has become a measure of the Islamic Republic’s failure to stabilize basic goods, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday, amid reports of a sharp drop in average meat consumption, with some citizens eating none at all.

Iran’s parliament security and foreign policy committee has approved a bill to strengthen the armed forces against Israel, mandating billions in funding from oil revenues, frozen foreign assets and air transit fees, its spokesperson said on Sunday.

Iran’s AnzaliLagoon, a wetland on the Caspian coast, is facing “serious challenges and human-inflicted wounds” and could disappear without urgent action, provincial governor Hadi Haghshenas said, according to state media.

Billions of dollars belonging to South Africa’s MTN Group, the founding investor of Irancell, Iran’s second-largest mobile operator, remain blocked in Iran under US sanctions, the company confirmed in a recent financial update.

A fresh hike in bread prices has deepened the strain on many Iranians, prompting warnings from a prominent economist that unchecked inflation could spark unrest.

Tehran’s approach to diplomacy may be best summed up by a Persian phrase: refusing with one hand and accepting with the other. But does the moribund economy show that the equivocating strategy has finally run out of road?

Government wheat procurement in Iran dipped by over a third this year due to declining production, officials said on Thursday, as drought and financial woes continue to plague the economy.

Iran has once again floated the idea of replacing the US dollar with local currencies in trade with its partners, but so far the push has gone nowhere.

The US Treasury Department said on Wednesday that international freight forwarder Fracht FWO Inc. has agreed to pay $1.61 million to settle violations of US sanctions, including dealings involving Iran’s Mahan Air, a carrier long accused by Washington of supporting terrorism.

Iran’s judiciary has forcefully defended a disgraced oil tycoon from accusations by the central bank that he had not paid back his debts after he was convicted in one of the country's biggest ever corruption cases.

Iran is passing off its crude oil as Iraqi exports to evade US sanctions, according to new evidence that contradicts Baghdad’s denials.