{"id":21368,"date":"2025-09-14T06:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21368\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T06:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:26:08","slug":"iranian-youth-facing-chronic-anxiety-as-living-costs-climb-tehran-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21368\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian youth facing chronic anxiety as living costs climb – Tehran daily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or modest leisure activities.<\/p>\n

One young woman told the paper her salary had risen sixfold in four years but her quality of life had deteriorated<\/a>. \u201cI clearly struggle to make ends meet each month,\u201d she said, explaining that social outings had shrunk to small gatherings at friends\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

A married couple said they had stopped buying basic items like coffee, while another respondent described cutting back on skin-care products and restaurants out of fear of running out of money before month\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Other interviewees echoed the theme. A newly married couple said that after a short trip to Kish Island in southern Iran, they had no money left for the rest of the month. <\/p>\n

Once accustomed to filling their cart with extras at chain stores, they now only buy essentials. A bookstore owner recounted earning 500 million rials ($500) a month but said higher household costs meant \u201cin my youth I am constantly thinking about money problems, not joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A teacher who once traveled frequently told Shargh he could no longer afford even budget trips to neighboring Turkey. Rising rents forced him and his friends to abandon a shared home outside Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though all of us earn more than last year, our quality of life has clearly gone down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Psychological strain<\/p>\n

The loss of economic security<\/a> is driving chronic anxiety among young professionals, psychologist Nasser Ghasemzadeh told Shargh.<\/p>\n

He said financial stress discourages marriage and childbearing and undermines collective morale: \u201cA young person who compares himself with peers abroad feels defeated. That sense of failure reduces hope in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without economic reforms, insecurity will continue to erode both individual mental health and wider social cohesion, he warned.<\/p>\n

The problem is rooted in inequality and state neglect, economist Hossein Raghfar told the daily. Wage-earners, unable to offset inflation through pricing power, bear the brunt of rising costs, according to him.<\/p>\n

Raghfar cited a 60\u201370 percent jump<\/a> in car prices last winter as proof of government failure to regulate markets.<\/p>\n

He cautioned that frustration is fueling crime and social unrest. \u201cThese young people look at the decision-making system and see it as the main cause of their failures\u2014and to a large extent they are right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a political force, the middle class now feels powerless, he added, drained of energy for civic engagement by daily financial stress.<\/p>\n

The insecurity facing young, educated workers is no longer a private matter but a collective threat to Iran\u2019s social fabric and future stability, Shargh concluded.<\/p>\n

Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund’s estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020.<\/p>\n

Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran’s currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value<\/a> since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.<\/p>\n

A poll by Iran’s leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month showed that a vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government’s economic policies, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-21368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}