Hossein Samsami Mazra'eh Akhound (born 1967 in Najaf) is an Iranian politician and institutionalist economist,[1] an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Shahid Beheshti University[2] and a representative of the 12th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly from Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat, Eslamshahr and Pardis constituencies.

Therefore, even though he was known as a fundamentalist and a critic of the Rouhani government, he seriously supported the method of calculating the price and taking action to implement the policy of allocating 4,200 Toman dollars (known as the Jahangiri currency).

He does not accept the short-term and long-term anti-inflationary effects of this plan, caused by the increase in productivity, which was not included in the Central Bank's estimate.

[12][13] In a research, Samsami had predicted that with the implementation of this plan in 2010, assuming the stability of other conditions in the model of targeting subsidies with cash payment, the Gini coefficient would first decrease from 39% to 35% and then increase again to 42% in 2011.

[13] But in practice, despite the occurrence of sanctions against Iran in 2011, the Gini coefficient index continued its downward trend until 2014, and then the slope of its graph increased.

[4] His tenure in the Ministry of Economy exceeded the statutory 3 months due to the entry of the 8th Parliament into the summer vacation, and the government obtained permission from the Leader of the Revolution to continue to carry out his responsibilities in this position.

He called the act of sprinkling the government's currency with oil revenues in the market, deindustrialization and the Dutch disease as supporting a cheap exchange rate.

"[9] Samsami's desire to suppress and lower the currency price by applying trade bans and sprinkling currency in the market with oil export earnings (which is called the Dutch disease or deindustrialization in the economic literature) became one of the reasons for his strong disagreement with Tahmasb Mazaheri, the head of the Central Bank at the time.

These six points are as follows:[24] Samsami, before removing the allocation of 4,200 Tomans dollar currency in June 2022, in an interview with Tasnim News Agency and also in a debate on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting television program named Jahan Ara with the topic "4,200 Tomans Currency: Yes or No?

[41] The result of this wrong estimate of the amount of hitting the target of 4,200 Tomans currency allocation was the allocation of more than 70 billion dollars of currency from the country's reserves at the rate of 4,200 Tomans according to official statistics and more than 110 billion dollars according to unofficial statistics.

As an institutionalist economist, in some key issues of Iran's economy, Samsami opposes measures for structural economic reforms and emphasizes solutions based on eliminating competitive markets with pricing, government management, creating multiple prices, and endogenous solutions based solely on internal resources.

[12] In 2014, in an interview, referring to the start of the gasoline rationing plan and the distribution of fuel cards in Iran for this purpose in 2007, he stated that in response to criticisms about the non-targeting of subsidy payments in this way and without price correction, the results of fuel subsidy payments is for the rich.

[46][47] Hossein Samsami Mazra'eh Akhound is originally from the village of Samsam Abad of Mazra'eh Akhound county from Nasr Abad city of Taft, and was born in Najaf, Iraq, but he completed his primary and high school education in Qom, Iran and successfully obtained a diploma in this city.