Photo: Ninara / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
Across Iran, families are cutting back on food, housing and education as an eight-month war with the United States fuels one of the country's worst inflation surges in decades, eroding incomes and pushing households to the brink, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Reuters spoke to more than two dozen people across Iran from different social and economic backgrounds, and found the strain reaching far beyond the country's major cities. Workers said wages no longer cover basic expenses, while businesses face rising costs and weakening demand as families spend most of their budgets on food, rent and other necessities.
"We have no money, no future and no hope. We're tired of living in fear, fear of another US attack and fear of not being able to make ends meet at the end of every month," Mohammadali, a 47-year-old shopkeeper and father of two in the northeastern city of Mashhad, told Reuters.
Inflation at its highest in decades
The numbers behind the hardship are stark. Consumer prices in September were nearly 90 percent higher than a year earlier — 89.8 percent, according to official data — while annual inflation accelerated to 73.6 percent, up from 69.9 percent in August, according to figures reported by state media. The September figure was reported as the highest annual rate in more than eight decades.
Food prices have risen even faster. The cost of food and beverages was 121.8 percent higher than a year ago, forcing many families to cut spending elsewhere. Within food, oils and fats have risen more than 250 percent year on year, according to detailed breakdowns of the official data, while milk, cheese and eggs have also seen very sharp increases.
The pressure has reached the top of Iran's economic policymaking. Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh apologised on Tuesday for the mounting cost-of-living pressures facing Iranians, state media reported, saying pensioners, workers and civil servants were bearing the brunt of soaring prices and high inflation.
How the war broke household budgets
The conflict was triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, followed by Tehran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a US blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf. That sequence disrupted oil exports, trade and government revenues — and it compounded the impact of decades of sanctions and economic mismanagement, Reuters reported.
The damage shows up in the currency as well as in shop prices. Market trackers recorded the dollar at about 2.558 million rials on the free market on September 29, compared with about 1.42 million rials per dollar reported in December 2025 — an approximately 80 percent increase in the rial cost of the dollar in nine months.
The International Monetary Fund's July outlook projected Iran's economy would contract by 5.4 percent this year, with average consumer-price inflation forecast at 68.9 percent — a forecast the September figures have already overtaken.
What comes next for ordinary Iranians
For households, the immediate question is not the next diplomatic round but the next grocery bill. With food taking a far larger share of spending for low-income families — more than 40 percent of the consumption basket for the poorest households — every further rise in food prices cuts directly into money for rent, healthcare and schooling.
The wider war is not over either. Qatari mediators have presented Tehran with a new draft deal aimed at ending the war, with a response expected by the end of the week, while US President Donald Trump has repeated threats to strike Iran again after next week's US midterm elections. Until either diplomacy or fighting produces a durable outcome, Iranian families face the same squeeze: wages that do not stretch, prices that do not stop rising, and a war economy that shows little sign of easing.
Sources: Reuters (interviews with more than two dozen Iranians, Mashhad shopkeeper quote, Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh's apology, 73.6% annual inflation, 89.8% year-on-year consumer prices, 121.8% food prices, war timeline, sanctions and mismanagement context); The Straits Times, reporting the same Reuters account; Statistical Center of Iran figures as reported by Bloom Pakistan and Iran Focus (monthly inflation 4.2%, annual rate up from 69.9% in August, food breakdowns, IMF July outlook, rial market rate). Official Iranian figures are attributed as such; the shopkeeper quote is from Reuters' interviews, not an independent verification by this blog.