Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The End of Socialism in Economic Policy Making

The new speaker of Majlis, Dr. Larijani, told reporters that the era of socialist economic policies is over. He emphasized the producing wealth must be encouraged since it guarantees a continuous growth.

He vowed that Majlis would not allow any law contradictory to the new interpretation of Article 44 of Iranian constitution, which allows for extensive privatization, to be passed. He also promised that new interpretation will become law very soon. This legitimizes privatizing several public enterprises and ends the government’s monopolies in several others. It seems that the economy is presumed to be the main task as hand.

On the other hand the government accepted that any further reduction of interest rate is not advisable, a victory for the head of Central Bank. While banks continue to implement a %12 interest rate, it is decided that the government pays %2 in subsidies to the industry to reduce their expenses.

Although it seems the tide is turning and after a few years of populist projects, high inflation has wised up some to their true cost. However President Ahmadinejad is still determined to go ahead with his great surgery of the economy. One only can hope, that rationalism prevails yet another time.

The era of socialism might be over, unfortunately its influence on Iranian intellegtsia and some politicians is not.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The ear of socialism as an ideal will live one, I hope! As a way of organizing society, good riddance!