Simay Azadi – In an interview with the state-run Student News Agency, Mohsen Zanganeh, member of the Iranian Parliament’s Budget Committee, acknowledged in an that one of the causes of rising prices is the abuse and profiteering by government officials.
He said: “Another factor behind rising prices is corruption. Many officials who became rich in the 1990s did so because of their activities during the 8-year war. In every political faction, there are people who support and profit from the system.”
Zanganeh further added, “After the Revolution, many people were handed control of state-owned companies and board positions. It was clearly a case of systemic exploitation. Even now, in this wartime environment, there are people positioning themselves to become the next generation of ‘trillionaires.’”
He also described the war as one of the causes of rising prices, adding: “30% of the rising prices are due to the nature of war. 35% is due to the inefficiency of government institutions.”
On May 9, 2026, state-affiliated media confirmed a dramatic price surge for essential commodities, including poultry, eggs, rice, sugar, and cooking oil. Bread, a primary staple, has seen particularly sharp increases. In Hamedan, new official rates were implemented on May 6, 2026. Abuzar Golmohammadi, head of the local bakers’ union, defended the move to state media, citing the unsustainable rise in production overheads—specifically wages, insurance, energy, and rent.
Under these new regulations, the price of Lavash has risen to 2,000 tomans, Sangak to 8,000, and Barbari to 16,500, with specialty breads reaching as high as 35,000 tomans. This inflationary trend has rapidly spread across major urban centers, including Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Qom, and Yazd, where many bakeries have moved toward unregulated, “free-market” pricing.
In a candid interview with the ILNA news agency, Yahya Azizi, an official of Iran’s Minister of Culture, labeled the current state of affairs “disastrous,” pointing to a massive gulf between earnings and the cost of living. He noted that the monthly poverty line has now climbed to 75 million tomans—a figure that is roughly triple the average salary of 24 million tomans.