The International Monetary Fund warned that Iran’ economy will shrink for the second year in a row and the inflation might reach 50 percent in the country.

Jihad Azour, the IMF’s chairman of the middle east and middle Asia announced that last year, Iran’s economy has shrunk 3.9 percent, and it might shrink 6.9 percent this year. He added that the assessment had taken place before the U.S decision to revoke the oil sanction waivers.

With the sanction waivers not being extended by the United States, from this May forward Tehran will not be able to export oil legally.

While oil sale is the main source of revenue for the Islamic Republic, American officials have recently announced that due to sanctions, Iran has lost $10 billion of its oil income.

Also, the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, decreased by 60 percent last year. While the official price of U.S dollar is 42000 rials in Tehran, the real price of the dollar was 144000 in Tehran’s markets.

The rate of inflation has also increased in the past 12 months compared to the year before.

According to Iran’s center for statistics, the price of the main group of “food, drink, and tobacco” has increased by 43.6 percent in the past 12 months. The overall inflation was officially reported as 30.6 for the past 12 months, but previously, during the negotiations for the minimum wage, it was announced that the rate of inflation was over 40 percent last year.

The high prices and shortage of food have reached a point that Iran is planning on returning the carcasses of the sheep that Iranian pilgrims sacrifice during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.