Economy & Environment

Around 60% of Iran’s wetlands have dried up as the country endures one of its driest years in two decades, with rainfall down by 20% compared to the long-term average, according to a report by Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

A senior Iranian economist warned on Saturday that annual inflation could exceed 60% by the end of the year (March 2026), as the government struggles to contain soaring prices and widening poverty amid renewed sanctions and fiscal strain.

A new report by Iran’s Statistical Center (ISC) reveals a sharp acceleration in food inflation, hitting millions of families where it hurts most.

An outlet linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday conceded that life is getting harder for Iranian families, in a sign that economic malaise has become too severe to ignore even by the ruling establishment.

The United States has reinstated a sanctions waiver allowing India to operate Iran’s Chabahar Port, weeks after Washington revoked the exemption as part of its so-called maximum pressure campaign on Tehran.

ExxonMobil’s return to southern Iraq this month underscores how far Baghdad has surged ahead of Tehran in exploiting their shared border oilfields—and how the two neighbors’ fortunes are diverging.

The collapse of Iran’s Ayandeh Bank resembles a national-scale Ponzi scheme, exposing how reckless lending, political patronage, and failed mega-projects drained public wealth.

Discounts on Iranian crude sold to China have widened to their steepest levels in over a year as tougher Western sanctions on Iran and Russia disrupt logistics and discourage independent refiners already struggling with limited import quotas, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Retirees across Iran held protests over the past week, demanding overdue pension payments and relief from rising cost of living according to voice and video submissions sent to Iran International.

A New Zealand insurer is under investigation for allegedly helping vessels transport sanctioned Iranian and Russian oil, a Reuters special report said on Tuesday, as Tehran’s crude exports continue to flow mainly to China despite US sanctions.

Land subsidence driven by decades of groundwater over-extraction is emerging as a direct threat to some of Iran’s most treasured heritage sites, including Persepolis, Naqsh-e Jahan Square and the Tomb of Cyrus, Iranian scientists and officials say.

Iran’s raw milk production has fallen sharply as a new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease spreads through livestock farms and feed shortages drive up costs, the head of the national dairy farmers’ association said on Sunday.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday Iran will remain on its list of high-risk countries for failing to fully accept the body's rules days after Iran's conditional accession to a UN convention against terror financing.

Iran’s dam reserves have dropped by nearly a quarter from last year, official figures showed on Friday, as rainfall across much of the country fell close to zero and drought reshaped rural areas in the central province of Isfahan.

Iran’s Central Bank revoked Ayandeh Bank’s operating license on Thursday, dissolving one of the country’s largest lenders due to massive losses and chronic inefficiency in another sign of gathering economic storm clouds as sanctions bite.

Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday that his ministry aims to soften and counter the effects of UN sanctions reinstated on Iran last month which are expected to deepen economic pain.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday there is no doubt that gasoline prices must rise, signaling that long-anticipated fuel reforms are moving closer despite fears of renewed public unrest.

Iran’s city of Isfahan could face a drinking water emergency within 45 days unless immediate action is taken to halt non-potable water extraction and speed up long-delayed transfer projects, the city’s council head warned, as drought deepens a nationwide water crisis.