TEHRAN, Mar 21 (AFP): Iran's supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the economic difficulties of Iranians the main and most urgent problem of the country in a message aired Thursday on state TV.
Iran has faced increased economic hardship in the last 12 months which was aggravated after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers last May.
The renewal of American sanctions, which had been eased in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear programmeme, sent shockwaves through Iran's economy.
"Specially in recent months the difficulties for people's livelihoods has increased," Khamenei said in a prerecorded message aired to mark the beginning of the new Iranian year (21 March 2019 till 20 March 2010).
"The economy is the country's urgent problem, it's the country's (most) serious and primary problem," he added, mentioning the devaluation of the national currency, the drop in purchasing power and the fall in production as symptoms of the issue.
Khamenei said increasing production was the key to saving the economy and declared "national production" the motto of the new year.
The IMF reported that the Iranian economy slumped into recession in 2018 and has forecast a 3.6 per cent decline in GDP for 2019.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani also focused on the US sanctions in his new year message broadcast on state TV immediately after Khamenei's.
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