Iran's Economy Under the Islamic Republic

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Dec 31, 1997 - Business & Economics - 420 pages
Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has grappled with the problems of running the complex, rapidly changing economy inherited from the Shah, under an Islamic banner. Castigating the ancien regime for establishing a consumerist, dependent economy along Western lines, the theocratic regime has tried to create an Islamic economic framework on the basis of independence, self-sufficiency and distributional justice. Faced with the difficulties of managing an oil-based and export-led economy within this narrow framework, the government has encountered numerous problems and has had to reverse its course in many areas. The result has been a rudderless economy, attempting to combine Islamic orthodoxy with the exigencies of the dominant international system of global free enterprise.

About the author (1997)

Jahangir Amuzegar served as Minister of Commerce and Minister of Finance in the Shah's government, and was on the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund. He has taught economics at several American universities, and has written many books on Iran - most recently The Dynamic of the Iranian Revolution (1991).

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