In his Now Ruz message, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi asked Iranians to cease buying foreign products where Iranian-made goods are available.
Merchants say Iranian shoppers had cut back on foreign goods even before Khamenehi spoke out because the sharp decline in the rial that took place in January plus Western sanctions are making many imported goods too expensive.
But it’s not just imported goods seeing rising prices. Bloomberg news went to the Tajrish bazaar in north Tehran and talked to a fish merchant, Abdullah, 50, as he rinsed fish while standing in knee-high boots.
He said his sales of the traditional Now Ruz white fish from the Caspian had fallen because the price of a kilo of white fish had soared as much as 50 percent to 120,000 rials or about $10. He said shoppers were now opting for cheaper varieties such as trout, which sells for about 65,000 rials a kilo.
Even nuts and pistachios, all domestic products and another Now Ruz tradition, have double in a price to around 300,000 rials kilo, Bloomberg reported.
Foreign travel, common among the wealthier people, has also been hit by soaring charges. Mohsen Ghassemi, director of the Pardis travel agency, said bookings were way down for the holiday. But Ghassemi said even domestic travel was now more costly with hotels in such popular destinations as Shiraz jacking up prices by 25 percent.
Khashayar, a salesman in a north Tehran computer shop that specializes in Apple products, said sales had plummeted as prices for computers and iPhones jumped 30 percent the last few months.
Khashayar said, “Six months ago, when we sold only a dozen computers a day, we would whine. Now, if we sell three or four, we pat ourselves on the back.”