Iran is boosting the monthly cash payments it gives to its citizens by more than 50 per cent, the Iranian Labour News Agency reported, as soaring inflation and the depreciating rial continue to bite deep into the national economy.

The Iranian government implemented the first-stage of its Targeted Subsidies Plan towards the end of 2010 in an attempt to wean the country off more generous food and fuel subsidies and so cut government spending.

At the time, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it the “biggest economic plan of the past 50 years.”

After the additional payment, the vast majority of Iranians will receive 730,000 rials ($60) in direct monthly cash payment.-TradeArabia News Service