A fraught, unstable economy has been the lived experience of generations of Iranians who have found their lives haunted by the dark shadow of the country’s isolation and unremitting fracas with the international community.

The authorities keep gloating about the Islamic Republic mutating from a regional power into a superpower, but what the ordinary Iranians endure through their day-to-day experiences is a mélange of conundrums: hyperinflation, dwindling purchasing power, steep devaluation of national currency and unemployment.

Iran’s economic ailments have driven thousands of gifted Iranians away from the country in search of opportunity elsewhere, drained the government’s ability to procure infrastructure and transportation and impinged on the availability of adequate healthcare and education. These are the adversities the national economy, beleaguered by grinding sanctions and deep-seated corruption, has taken for granted for years.