TEHRAN – Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) Masoud Khansari has said that considering the current global economic situation, the Iranian economy is facing four major challenges namely inflation, water crisis and food supply, financial turmoil in the banking system, and lack of enough attention to non-oil exports.

“The world has been facing complex issues in the past few months. The conflict with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the increase in the price and shortage of food (especially basic goods such as wheat, corn, oil, etc.), the jump in energy prices, the acceleration of climate change, and the spread of droughts are among these challenges. In our country, however, in addition to the above-mentioned issues, sanctions and economic mismanagement have also been the cause,” Khansari wrote in an article published on the TCCIMA portal on Saturday.

According to Khansari, if serious attention is not paid to the mentioned challenges in the coming months and the governments do not make plans to solve them, they can become blind nodes to the point where, as the World Bank has stated in a report, there will be a risk of the world returning to 1970 and experience a widespread economic recession.

Mentioning inflation as one of the most important issues, Khansari noted that central banks across the world, including the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), should use other regulatory tools to control inflation instead of increasing interest rates.

He further underlined the water crisis in the country, saying that according to FAO Iran is facing a serious water crisis in the coming years which will increase the country’s dependence on imports of agricultural products if not properly managed.

Regarding the unfavorable condition of the country’s banking system, the TCCIMA head noted that amending the current state of the country's banking system and changing the direction of banks from banking to corporate management has been proposed for more than a decade, but it has not yet been realized.

He finally stressed the importance of non-oil exports considering the current situation of the global economy, saying: “We have not been able to use our full capacities in exporting goods and services.”

EF/MA