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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Iran Reveals First Budget since Return of US Sanctions

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. (AP)

Iran unveiled on Tuesday its first annual budget since the United States re-imposed economic sanctions against it.

President Hassan Rouhani said the budget has been adjusted to take account of Washington's "cruel" measures.

The $47.5 billion budget is less than half the size of last year's, mainly due to the severe depreciation of the local currency following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Iranian rial has fallen from around 42,000 to the dollar a year ago to around 100,000 today.

The president announced a 20 percent increase in public sector wages in a sign of the economic challenges Tehran has faced since Washington’s withdrawal.

The speech gave only a few general points of the budget -- which will now be scrutinized and voted on by parliament -- but acknowledged the pressure Iran was under.

"Last year we faced some problems," Rouhani told parliament in a televised speech, referring to the widespread protests that hit the country almost exactly a year ago, sparked by anger over economic and political conditions.

"Those events caused the Americans to change their position regarding the Iran and the nuclear deal," he said.

The renewed US sanctions include an embargo on Iran's crucial oil sector.

The new budget did not say how many barrels of oil Iran hopes to sell in the next financial year, which starts in late March, but analysts believe it will be considerably less than the approximately 2.5 million it sold per day prior to Trump's withdrawal.

The US granted waivers to eight key buyers of Iranian oil -- including China, India and Turkey -- though this has been a double-edged sword for Iran since it also helped push down the global price.

The government is allocating $14 billion to import medicine, medical equipment and other necessities, slightly more than the $13 billion allocated last year.

Lawmakers interrupted Rouhani's speech on two occasions to protest the government's water policies. Iran is suffering from a decade-long drought, and water shortages have sparked protests over the past year.

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