TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has acknowledged publicly for the first time that his country’s economy is taking a severe beating from tumbling oil prices, a damaging admission for a populist leader who faces eroding popularity and a tough re-election battle next year.

Oil prices have plunged more than 60 percent since July as a faltering global economy reduces demand. Ahmadinejad said that will force the government of the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter to make painful spending cuts, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.