Iran Says It Has a Card to Counter U.S. Sanctions... Sets Up a Two-Year Economic Plan

[Financial News]  

As the United States launched what it called an "economic isolation campaign" on the 24th local time to economically strangle Iran, Tehran also unveiled its own response.
Seyed Ali Madanizadeh, Iran's economy and finance minister, said that the country had "drawn up a two-year economic plan" in response to U.S. sanctions and that it was "fully prepared for new sanctions."
He expressed strong confidence that Iran could hold out, even as the value of the Iranian rial fell to 20 million per U.S. dollar, setting a new all-time low.
Madanizadeh said Iran's steel and petrochemical industries had suffered heavy damage from the war, but the government had mobilized all resources to quickly restart damaged facilities and begin reconstruction projects.
He stressed that the U.S. naval blockade was an economic sanction no different from war, but said it was not enough to cut off Iran's economic arteries. He also claimed that inflation was actually stabilizing. He said the monthly inflation rate had fallen to about half of last month's level and that the same trend was continuing this month. He emphasized that the government was managing the pace of price increases through monetary, foreign exchange and banking policies. He added that half of government revenue came from tax income and that the tax collection rate last year exceeded 90 percent, despite the wartime conditions.

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