The result is a vicious cycle in which falling household purchasing power weakens businesses, while struggling businesses further undermine employment and incomes. But what may appear to be the expansion of consumer finance is in reality an indication of declining purchasing power. One 29-year-old editor in Tehran told ILNA that installment credit has increasingly become part of his daily life. Businesses are collapsing on the other side of the same crisisThe crisis facing households is mirrored by the condition of small businesses. Iran’s economic crisis is therefore increasingly taking the form of a downward spiral: inflation erodes wages, falling wages reduce consumption, declining consumption weakens businesses, struggling businesses threaten jobs, and lost income pushes more families into debt.