ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran has faced considerable inflation as the price of some items such as cars and gold coins have increased more than 20 percent in the past few weeks. The prices of some new cars increased from around $16,000 to over $23,500 USD during the last two weeks. This amounts to approximately a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in prices. "The lack of competition, monopoly, and governmental supervision are the reasons for inflation in Iran's car market," Taqi Kabiri, member of the economic committee in the Iranian parliament, told Eghtesad online news agency. Car producers mentioned several reasons for this inflation in Iran's car market including that the prices of car parts have increased due to the return of US sanctions in the coming months. Also, some automobile companies are branches of international car producers in Iran, so they might not be able to produce and import cars after the return of US sanctions goes into effect. In addition to cars, the price of gold coins has increased considerably as people want to buy gold, which has a more stable value. Iranian officials accused traders of buying many gold coins to feed the inflation and sell the coins with higher prices in future. On May 9, United States President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Subsequently, many foreign companies are preparing to leave Iran, causing uncertainty in Iran's market. Iranian activists took to social media to dispute the inflation rates. Ali Karimi, a famous footballer, announced a campaign on his Instagram asking Iranians not to buy any expensive items for one month, including cars and gold coins.
