Appearing before parliament on Sunday, July 14, Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani did something that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rarely did in his eight years in office and told the truth about the extent of Iran’s economic crisis.

Working groups Rouhani has set up to analyze Iran’s problems before he is sworn in next month found “very different” results from those provided by Ahmadinejad’s appointees, Rouhani said.

Inflation, for example, is 42% — the highest in the region “and perhaps even in the whole world,” he said, and 10 points higher than the current administration has acknowledged. The anemic Iranian economy has created only 14,000 jobs a year on average since 2005 and for the first time since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Rouhani said, “Our economic growth has been negative for two consecutive years.”

Rouhani’s candor is partly meant to lower expectations for quick progress after Ahmadinejad is gone. But it is also a refreshing acknowledgement of just how bad things have become and should help the new president gain support for changes in both policy and personnel.