“We have seen a decrease of between 25 and 35 percent. Our exports have decreased, but imports have decreased even more,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with state television late Friday, according to a Google translation of a transcript from the state-run Tasnim news agency, CNBC reports.
The US's already harsh sanctions have been gradually tightened since the outbreak of war on February 28. The blockade of Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf began on April 13.
Pezeshkian now turns against “those who claim that sanctions have no effect at all.”
“To claim that sanctions have no effect is not consistent with the facts.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since he was injured in an attack on February 28, in turn calls for greater economic independence for the country.
In a statement made in his name on X late Friday, Khamenei urges authorities to focus on domestic inflation, unemployment, pricing, and markets for goods and services.
“Equally crucial is to pay special attention to economic growth, increasing production, gradually phasing out the central role of the US dollar and, ultimately, making the ‘resistance economy’ the central focus,” the text continues.
