Principlist daily: Raisi failed to ease economic pressure troubling people’s livelihoods

In an article on Saturday, Kayhan daily said the Raisi administration had made good achievements in its efforts to promote foreign trade and ties with neighbors, and it had been able to remove many obstacles hindering exports and imports “in a short period of time.”

Nevertheless, “the economic situation of the people has not improved under the new government, despite the appropriate measures taken,” it said.

The daily said housing continues to grow more expensive and soaring prices of basic goods are piling up more pressure on the public.

Kayhan said it is true that Raisi managed to “open many of the economic locks” remaining from the term of his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, in office, but his measures have not “contributed concretely to efforts toward solving the problems that citizens face on a daily basis.”

The Iranian economy has been under tough American and Western sanctions. The country’s national currency, rial, has largely lost its value against the US dollar in recent months.

Amid widespread criticism of the government’s economic performance, Raisi went for a partial cabinet shake-up in recent weeks.