As a follow-up to my previous post about whether Iran is facing an economic crisis, Brookings Visiting Fellow Djavad Salehi-Isfahani points out that poverty rates in Iran are not high when compared to international standards for developing countries, nor do they appear to be rising.
Unfortunately, poverty rates in Iran are highly politicized and economic scholarship is not advanced enough to monitor and sort various claims. . .
A short study of urban poverty that appeared last week in a research journal of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) showed that poverty was high and on the rise. The report has been widely disseminated inside and outside Iran. According to news reports, the study claims that 14 million Iranians are living below the poverty line ...
There is no harm in setting lofty goals for poverty reduction for any country as long as people know that the poverty line is set much higher than the international norm. The $2 per day line results in poverty rates of 5.6% in 2006.
However, income inequality is on the rise and poses a challenge to President Ahmadinejad in his 2009 re-election bid.
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