A farewell to subsidies

by Gareth Smith February 3, 2011

written by Gareth Smith February 3, 2011

It was probably just fallings now that eased air pollution in Tehran last month, but the improvement might also be a sign of early success in the government’s efforts to reduce gasoline consumption by removing costly subsidies of fuel, along with electricity and even bread. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has skill fully used widening United States-led sanctions — which have impeded Iran’s gasoline imports — to win popular acceptance of the need to phase out subsidies of energy and other everyday items, estimated to cost $100 billion annually. Previous governments have tended to shy away from economic reform, fearing that Iranians regard cheap fuel as a birthright. Figures from Shana, the oil ministry news agency, put average daily consumption of gasoline at 55.4 million liters in the week ending January 7, a 12 percent drop from the week before a new pricing system was introduced on December 19. President Ahmadinejad

iran Petroleum Tehran

Gareth Smith

Gareth Smith was a distinguished journalist who reported from the Middle East for over two decades. He served as the Financial Times correspondent in Tehran, where he was the chief Iran correspondent from 2003, following his earlier role as Lebanon correspondent. Throughout his career, Smith covered Middle Eastern affairs for leading media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, and the BBC. He also contributed as an editor to Executive magazine. His work as a freelance journalist in the 1990s, focusing on the politics of Iran and Iraq, paved the way for his appointment at the FT. In 2009, he relocated to the west coast of Ireland, where he balanced freelance journalism with his passion for nature and the land.

A farewell to subsidies

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