Rouhani Deals With Ahmadinejad's Economic Legacy
The success of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s economic reforms will ultimately depend on international sanctions relief.
TEHRAN, Iran — On the last day of his presidency, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Tehran to inaugurate a residential estate, one of hundreds he commissioned under his "Maskan-e Mehr" housing project to build 600,000 low-income homes across the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s new government say that the cheap credit Ahmadinejad used to fuel Maskan-e Mehr has devastated the economy. Many in Iran see the project — for which the former president famously auctioned off his 1977 Peugeot 504 — as emblematic of his approach to economic policy: Populist, redistributive initiatives turn into a herd of white elephants.
