Iran’s state budget is under pressure and the government has cut spending in some areas, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying as the country struggles to cope with Western economic sanctions, Reuters reported Tuesday, October 9. “In many places the budget has become zero or has been cut by 25 percent,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Tuesday without elaborating. Ahmadinejad did not mention reasons for the pressure but his remarks appeared an indirect acknowledgement that the sanctions, imposed over Iran’s nuclear program, are having a major impact on state revenues. They have also triggered a plunge in Iran’s rial currency, which the head of parliament’s budget and planning committee said would be addressed via a further tightening of foreign exchange controls.