TEHRAN: The inflation rate in Iran’s urban areas for the 12-month period to the fifth Iranian calendar month of Mordad (ended on Aug. 23) hit 10 percent, which indicates a fall by 0.1 percent compared to the preceding month, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said. While the CBI report confirms that Iran’s inflation rate has reached to a two-digit figure, the Statistical Center of Iran put the inflation rate for the same period at 7.7 percent, 0.1 percent more compared to the figure for last month from the Center. So, there is a 2.3 percent difference between the figures unveiled by the two official Iranian entities. Last year, the Central Bank of Iran announced that inflation has reached a one-digit figure, for the first time in a quarter century. The country’s point-to-point inflation in the fifth calendar month of current fiscal year was 8.6 percent, according to the CBI. The point-to-point inflation statistics testifies to the rate between distinct points in time, such as the inflation rate at the end of a month compared to the rate of inflation at the end of the same month in the previous year.
The Central Bank also said that setting the Iranian fiscal year 1395 (March 21, 2016 to March 20, 2017) as the main one, that is 1395=100, the consumer price index (CPI) in Iran’s urban areas stood at 107.7 units in the fifth month of the current fiscal year, which is 0.2 percent more than in the preceding month. The figure shows an annual growth of 8.6 percent. The index for foods and drinks shows an increase by 1.1 percent compared to the preceding month and a growth rate of 11.7 percent when compared to the same time of last year, according to the CBI. The inflation rate in Iran in 2005 was about 10.4 percent, but in mid-2013, when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to power, the inflation rate and point-to-point inflation rate were 37.5 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
