Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the economic difficulties of Iranians the main and most urgent problem. The country has faced increased economic hardship in the last 12 months after the renewal of US sanctions. “Specially in recent months the difficulties for people’s livelihoods have increased,” Khamenei said in a message aired to mark the beginning of the new Iranian year. “The economy is the country’s urgent problem, it’s the country’s [most] serious and primary problem,” he added, citing the devaluation of the national currency, the drop in purchasing power and the fall in production. Khamenei said increasing production was the key to saving the economy and declared “national production” the motto of the new year, AFP reports.