In the years since at least I am involved in Iranian affairs there was always a kind of hope as sansctions prevailed and people expressed their deepest belief that sometimes this problems will be gone. No we see not really a progress for the people, more or less it became worse with the most significant sign of crisis as the dollar jumped.
It is not only strongly economical
As we started our business, economy was a problem influenced by sanctions and everyone though, by the time the sanction will go, the hard interpretation of Iranian habits, rules will also weaken up, and Iran becomes a normal member of the world society. Unfortunately are on both sides enough people which are not that much interested in a normal relationship. A few years after sanction lift, the economy seemed to start and trade starts. There were a lot of new economy business like the Uber or eBay or Iran. In addition, people had the hope that Iran can connect to the world as if they re-connected their SWIFT-adapter to the world banking system. However, unfortunately it was not only and was never only the economy. Always politics cross the lines. Moreover, here the Iranian government is right not really everybody’s darling....
Jump of Dollar
One clear signal is the jump of the Dollar. People fear that Iran comes more and more in the situation much worse before sanctions due to the activities in Syria or Yemen, which are interfering the interests of USA and Saudi Arabia. Maybe the both are not the most peaceful nations in the world, they are the most powerful. In addition, for a weak economy like Iran it makes absolutely no sense to start a brawl with this people. Therefore, reality is a jump of the dollar, which affects nearly everything in private and public expenses, shopping tours and investments. Some of the big projects have lost up to 20% of their budget. In addition, we are talking about millions of EUROs or Dollars that are lost in exchange rates.
Apple? Hello? Where are you?
It was nearly a year that all the Iranian apps dropped out from Apple store. First people cannot believe this as Apple was always a smooth operator for all Iranians. Moreover, Iranian admire Apple and love the IPhone. Even it is not and was never officially in Iran, the friends in Cupertino let the things go on in Iran. The above mentioned start-ups where very successful and unlike UBER the Iranian company SNAP made it possible to ride secure with good cars and brought a lot of people in business. Now you can reach them only in Android-store.
Now? Recently Apples stopped access to app store from Iranian IPs. Still you can reach with VPN but it is the first open sign of way back.
Oil oil oil
This is the real issue. The only working industry is the oil-industry. Here you have the people working; here you have the orders and the big budgets. However, beside this, nothing is really growing or bringing people into jobs. I hope that after this the politicians turn down the spiral of escalation. In addition, not using it in Iran to argue for reduction of freedom and rights for women and men. Now it is really a time of decision - going into the world or going back to Stone Age.
Stay tuned
Yours K-Street6 Team