Aresistance economy, also known as aresistive economy (Persian:اقتصاد مقاومتی) is an economy that tries to circumventsanctions imposed on the country or region. This can involve increasing resilience by substituting local inputs for imported inputs, thesmuggling of goods and an increase inbarter trade. A country may even attempt to turn these pressures into opportunities. In some ways sanctioned economies bear some resemblance to aneconomy on a war or emergency footing.[1]
Measuring economic activity in nations under sanctions requires different techniques than those used for other countries.
This phrase first used byAyatollah Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran during a meeting with Iranian entrepreneurs as a response tointernational sanctions against Iran in 2011.[2]
The term was used in relation to theGaza Strip. In September 2007,Israel andEgypt imposed ablockade on Gaza. At its height, the blockade also limited agricultural imports and exports via Israel. Imports and exports viaEgypt have been subject to varying Egyptian policies, with Egypt at times also greatly restricting traffic as an "anti-terrorist" measure.[3] One 2011 conference paper by Salah R. Agha of theIslamic University of Gaza used the term "resistive economy" to describe the situation.[4]
Iran has been under increasingsanctions owing to its disputednuclear program. The response has emphasized reliance ondomestic capacities, reducing dependence on oil exports and developingbarter trade and animport substitution industrialization.[5][6] As much as 70% of Iran’s importscould be substituted by domestically produced products.[citation needed]
In detail, it encourages increased exports ofelectricity, gas, petrochemicals, and oil byproducts instead of crude oil and other raw materials, expansion of the production and exportation ofknowledge-based products, increase in domestic production of strategic goods, development of markets in neighboring countries,reforming consumption patterns and fightingcorruption.[7][8]
The "Resistance Economy" is a concept defined by theSupreme Leader of IranAli Khamenei, an idea which he proposed in 2007.[9] According to Khamenei, that resistance economy aims to promote economic self-reliance, a strategy that would defeat the US-led efforts against Iran via economic and trade sanctions while discouraging extravagant consumption,[10] noting that “the resistance economy is an inspiring pattern of the Islamic economic system and a good chance to make an economic epic.”
Ali Khamenei specified the main aims of the economy of resistance as:
1. Creating dynamism
2. Resistance against threatening elements
3. Reliance on domestic capacities
4. Adopting a jihadi outlook
5. Making people the pivot
6. Security for strategic and fundamental goods
7. Reducing oil dependence
8. Reforming the norms of consumption (no decadence and waste)
9. Combating corruption
10. Promoting a knowledge-based economy[11]
According to the Center for Preserving and Publishing the Works of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed, "Following an indigenous scientific pattern, rooted in the revolutionary and Islamic culture, will lead to the defeat of enemies and their withdrawal from an imposedeconomic war against the Iranian nation".
“The Resistance Economy will also present an inspiring pattern of the Islamic economic system for the growing international crises and can prepare the ground for creating an economic epic.”
The 24-point general policies of Iran’s Resistance Economy were set based on theArticle 110 of the Constitution and after consulting with the Expediency Council.[citation needed]
The ideology of the Resistance Economy, with its core concepts of self-sufficiency, proclaims that the Islamic Republic can survive — and indeed flourish — despite theUS-led sanctions.[according to whom?]
