On 2/22/07, Shane Mage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On 2/21/07, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/21/letter_from_iran/
>>The view from Tehran
>>Iranians are fed up with the high price of tomatoes...
In the middle of February the price of tomatoes has to be high. And
with less than optimal weather in the southernmost regions, the
price has to be very high. What do sanctions have to do with it?
I looked at Iran's CPI: Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
"Consumer Price Index, Azar (November 22 - December 21, 2006),"
<http://www.cbi.ir/page/3498.aspx>. A rise in fresh vegetable prices,
and a particularly sharp rise in tomato prices, may be indeed due
mainly to weather: "During Azar 1385, the food, beverages and tobacco
group index went up 5.3 percent, mainly due to the increase of 'fresh
vegetables' index by 33.4 percent. This advance was largely caused by
the sharp increase of the price for 'tomato', 'cucumber', 'potato',
'eggplant' and 'onion' by 94.2 percent, 27.9 percent, 28.2 percent,
62.3 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively." But housing prices have
also gone up.
It is true that at this point sanctions can't be blamed for either.
Unlike the author of the Salon article, though, most critics (who
never liked economic populism anyhow) blame the government's fiscal
and monetary policy, not sanctions, for inflation.
When the government of an oil exporting nation that has a mixed
economy undertakes a populist economic policy when oil prices are
high, a good deal of inflation may be inevitable.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
