Iran’s Statistics Center Reports Country’s Inflation Rate at 38.6% in Dey Month
Iran’s Statistics Center announced in a report released on Tuesday, the first of Bahman month, that the 12-month inflation rate ending in Dey month of last year was 38.6 percent.
This figure represents a 1.4 percent decrease compared to the annual inflation rate for Azar month. However, the decrease in inflation does not mean goods and services have become cheaper in the country; it only means the pace of price increases has slowed somewhat.
Details of the Statistics Center’s report show that the price increase for food items in the 12-month period ending in Dey month compared to the same period last year was approximately 52.4 percent. Some food items such as various types of meat and vegetables experienced inflationary pressures of around 70 percent.
The report states the inflation rate for the housing and rental sector at approximately 23 percent.
Additionally, price increases in rural areas have been higher than in cities. Rural inflation was reported at around 42 percent and urban inflation at 38 percent.
Inflation in Dey month itself compared to the corresponding month last year (point-to-point inflation) was assessed at 26.3 percent, which represents a 1.5 percent decrease compared to Azar month inflation.
After the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA and the imposition of sanctions, inflation in Iran surged sharply and reached a record of 42.7 percent in Shahrivar month.
The pace of price increases declined somewhat after that.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s assessment, Iran’s inflation for 2019 was approximately 35.7 percent, which ranked fifth in the world after Venezuela, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Argentina in terms of the pace of price increases.
This international institution has predicted that the inflation rate in Iran will be 31 percent during the current calendar year, and in the coming years, some of the pace of price increases in Iran will slow, ultimately declining to 25 percent by 2024.
Next year, Iran will also rank fifth in the world in terms of inflation, in 2022 it will experience the third-highest inflation in the world, and in the two years following that, among all countries in the world, only Sudan will have higher inflation than Iran.
Accordingly, it is expected that prices in Iran will continue to rise in the coming years.
High inflation over the past two years has been accompanied by a significant economic recession.
Iran’s economy contracted by approximately 4.8 percent in 2018, and last year it contracted again by 9.5 percent, meaning Iran’s gross domestic product has declined by 14.3 percent over the past two years, and it is expected that Iran’s economic growth in the current calendar year will be zero percent.
Source: Radio Farda
