Successive Iranian administrations have in past decades, to various degrees, shown a tendency toward populist policies. This has often meant losing sight of underlying issues that are only addressed after transforming into fully fledged crises. The state of pension funds in Iran, which is becoming increasingly dire, is a prime example of the latter.

Experts and observers have for years been warning that Iranian pension funds are on a steep, declining trajectory. Now, it appears that politicians are following suit: First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri on Oct. 23 became the highest-ranking government official to sound the alarm on the funds, signaling the seriousness of the issue. Addressing a regional conference on aging societies no less, he referred to pension funds as one of the "major challenges" facing Iran. President Hassan Rouhani's second-in-command also reported some startling facts: Almost all of the expenditures of the Armed Forces Pension Fund and about 80% of the required financial resources of the Civil Servants Pension Fund (CSPF) — the country's oldest pension fund — which is currently run by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare — are directly provided by the government.

"In the coming years, with the increased number of [members of the] workforce who will reach the age of retirement, their expenses must be provided through these funds," Jahangiri said.

Available data suggest that achieving such a goal is easier said than done. According to Iran's top business daily, Donya-e-Eqtesad, the Iranian treasury has paid an average of 25 trillion rials ($595 million) per month to the CSPF during the current Iranian year (which began last March). Considering that the government's total current expenditures based on the budget law amount to about 2.94 quadrillion rials ($70 billion), the paper said, if the current trend of payouts continues, payments to the CSPF alone will be equivalent to just under 10% of government current expenditures by spring 2019.