According to reports EconomyOnline According to Etemad, although there are some ifs and buts, and many experts believe that despite the possibility of liquidity reaching more than 3 trillion tomans by the end of this year, targeted inflation will not be achieved. However, the government does not seem to have much hope for that either, as it is set to increase staff salaries by 25 percent next year, which indicates that expected inflation is higher than targeted inflation. Despite much criticism The inflation rate Targeted, what matters is that it overshadows wage-setting sessions. At the 1999 wage-setting meetings, some workers’ representatives protested the government’s inflation rate, arguing that the government would raise wages below inflation by setting next year’s inflation rate. In this regard, the inspector of the Supreme Assembly of Workers ‘Representatives had said that “the government’s belief in reducing” expected inflation “for this year caused a slight increase in workers’ wages. “In fact, he hoped that the economic situation would improve greatly in reducing the bargaining power of workers’ representatives to raise wages.” Meanwhile, Ali Babaei, a spokesman for the parliament’s social commission, believes that at least 35 percent of workers’ wages should be added next year to make up for some of the weakening of their purchasing power. However, according to Hadi Abui, secretary general of the Supreme Chamber of Trade Unions Workers’ rights If it increases by 300%, it will not compensate for their lost purchasing power. Perhaps the only solution is to control inflation, not by order, but by improving economic conditions and harnessing potential. By analyzing the reports of the Statistics Center and the Central Bank, economic indicators can be obtained, even in the conditions when the economic growth of oil increases, because the growth of other sectors is less than oil and more than 70% of employees are employed in sectors other than oil. It will not work for the benefit of all members of society. Therefore, solving the current problems depends on improving the conditions of all sectors.
Deepening the poverty gap among workers
Hamidreza Imam Qolitbar had announced the poverty line of four-person families at 10 million Tomans three months ago, which is a gap of more than 7 million with the minimum wage this year. The start of bargaining to raise wages, as well as the low probability of achieving the targeted inflation of 22 percent, along with the real unemployment rate of 18.5 percent, can continue to affect workers’ wages and their purchasing power and create a wage spiral. In this situation, because production units can not raise wages as much as inflation, more people go below the poverty line and the income gap between the first and tenth income deciles widens every year. The claim of this proposition can be seen in the increase of the Gini coefficient as an indicator of inequality in the distribution of income and wealth. So that during the years 96 to 98, which increased by 0.3% and reached from 0.398 to 0.399. The ratio of expenditures of the tenth decile to the first decile has also increased by 0.36% during this period. According to what the Statistics Center has published, the poverty line in 1996 was about two million and 500 thousand tomans, which increased to 98 million and 500 thousand tomans in 1998. At the end of the spring of this year, Mohammad Ghasemi, the then head of the Parliamentary Research Center, stated that the national poverty rate in 1997 was 18.4 percent. This means that by 1997, about 15 million and 500 thousand people were living in absolute poverty. However, with inflation rising to 41.2 percent in March 1998, this rate is expected to increase. Imam Qolitbar reportedly worried about the livelihood of 20 million people and living in conditions without welfare, recreation and even health facilities.
Fixed payers, losers salary increase
Since the beginning of 1997, when the dollar experienced a series of large and small jumps and transferred this jump to inflation, fixed wage earners such as workers and government employees have suffered more. Because other jobs changed the price of the goods and services they provided in proportion to the rising dollar and expected inflation. Fixed payers, on the other hand, could only reduce the “volume and amount” of consumer goods or services to fit their budget. Imam al-Qalibar had said six months before the decline in food and feed for workers and fixed-wage earners in the face of rising inflation and weakening purchasing power. According to him, “half of the Iranian society does not receive at least food and protein and will not be able to continue their education soon.” The inspector of the Supreme Assembly of Workers’ Representatives said in an interview yesterday that “workers have to devote all their income to reimburse the costs of renting housing and clothing and educating their children and treatment, and have no minimum food budget to absorb only 2,100 calories a day. “They do not have families.” Imam al-Qalibar’s speeches in the inflation reports are claimed by the Statistics Center. According to the latest report on inflation, this year the situation of monthly and point-to-point inflation is worse than last year and annual inflation has decreased slightly. But reducing annual inflation has not been able to reduce the pressure of monthly and point-to-point inflation. According to the report, in the first 8 months of this year, the average monthly inflation is about 3.8 percent and the average point-to-point inflation is 30.4 percent. In other words, in the first eight months of this year, compared to the same period last year, the price of a similar basket of goods and services has increased by an average of 30.4%. This “average price increase” can increase the poverty line and increase the population below the absolute poverty line, given that wages increased by only 25% in 1999 compared to 1998.
The gap between income and inflation
From 1997 to 1999, the minimum income of a childless worker increased from one million and 312 thousand tomans to two million and 510 thousand tomans, which indicates an increase of 91 percent. During this period, the exchange rate rose from about 4,205 tomans in April 1997 to more than 26,000 tomans in December this year, which shows an increase of 518 percent. During this period, the inflation rate jumped 472 percent from 8.1 in April 1997 to 46.4 percent in October this year. This shows that the growth of the minimum wage during this period is more than seven percent less than the growth of the inflation rate, and if wages are compared to the exchange rate, Abu’s claim will be correct. In the summer of this year, Imam Qoli Tbar had announced a poverty line of 10 million Tomans. If the government adds 25 percent to the minimum wage of workers from next year, it will take until 1405 for workers’ wages to reach the risk of poverty of 10 million tomans in 1999.