Iran may have a higher tolerance for economic pain—but the pain is excruciating as regime reveals 100% inflation in just days on some items

Iran’s regime has so far withstood U.S. and Israeli bombardment, but the economic forces that sparked the most serious conflict in decades have only gotten more severe. Spiraling inflation and a collapsing currency set off mass protests in late December and early January, prompting a brutal crackdown that is estimated to have left tens of thousands dead. Given the Iranian regime’s willingness to massacre its own people, analysts have said Tehran has a higher tolerance for economic pain than the U.S., which is trying to clinch a favorable peace deal with a naval blockade that’s choking off oil exports. Still, the pain is excruciating, and now, even the regime is acknowledging it. An official in Iran’s labor and social affairs ministry said the war has put a million people out of work, as top employers in the oil and manufacturing sectors have suffered damage. Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned Wednesday that the U.S. blockade represented a “new phase” of war. “The enemy has pinned great hope on economic pressure,” he said. The government has urged Iranians to limit consumption of water, electricity and gas, while authorities in the capital called on residents use public transportation instead of their cars. Iran’s steel industry encouraged companies to ration their use of steel sheets. First vice president Mohammad Reza Aref also admitted that prices for certain products soared by more than 100% in less than a week. The overall annual inflation rate hit 67% in mid-April from a year earlier, according to Iran’s central bank. That tracks with assessments in mid-April, when residents of Tehran and other cities told Reuters that some prices have shot up around 40% in the six weeks after the war started. Prior to that, food inflation had soared to an annual rate of 64% in October, then accelerated further to 105% by February, vaulting overall inflation to 47.5% on the eve of war. A 56-year-old housewife i