Fading hope

摘要

To tehran's businessmen, they are known as the tea-ceremony set: foreign day-trippers sizing up the bounty that could be on offer if Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, takes the plunge and backs a conclusive nuclear deal with the West. The number of businessmen entering Iran surged once before, after an interim deal with six world powers was struck in November 2013, raising hopes of a windfall for investors. With a population close to 80m and the world's 18th-largest economy, Iran could be an attractive market. Hassan Rohani, its outward-looking moderate president, argues the case for foreign investment and the jobs it could create. Yet his hopes of opening up the economy are stymied not just by sanctions and the elusive hope of a deal that would lift them. He also faces strong opposition from hardliners in Tehran, many of whom bridle at the notion of foreign companies on their turf. And time is not on his side. Iran's economy is suffering from the effects of sanctions, a plummeting oil price and decades of mismanagement, not to mention the cost of funding militias and dictators in the region. Youth unemployment is rising and living standards are falling.