According to the Statistical Center of Iran, tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplants saw the highest price increases in Farvardin compared to the previous month. The inflation rate in Farvardin reached 3.3 percent, which is a two percent increase compared to Esfand 1400.
According to the latest report from the Statistical Center of Iran on May 1, the monthly inflation rate for Farvardin 1401 reached 3.3%, which is an increase of two percentage points compared to Esfand 1400. According to the statistics provided, the monthly inflation rate of households has also increased.
The highest point-to-point inflation growth was related to food, with an increase of 2.7 percent. The report states that in the “food, beverages and tobacco” group, the highest price increase in the past month was in the “fruit and dried fruits” group, the “vegetables” group, especially tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants, and the “sugar, confectionery and sweets” group.
The point inflation rate means the percentage change in the price index compared to the same month in the previous year. The Statistical Center of Iran says that the point inflation rate reached 35.6 percent in Farvardin 1401; this means that Iranian households paid this much more on average than in Farvardin 14000 to purchase " the same set of goods and services."
For food items, this rate is reported to be an average of 43 percent.
In the last week of April, it was officially announced that the price of three types of high-quality Iranian rice for consumers had risen to over 100,000 Tomans. This increase was in contrast to the government’s “mandatory reduction” in prices that had been implemented before Nowruz in order to control rice prices.
In the major group of "Non-food goods and services", "Hotel accommodation costs", the group of "Miscellaneous goods and services", "Automobile insurance premiums and 18-karat gold", and the group of "Transportation", "Vehicle types and their repairs" had the highest price increase compared to the previous month.
The Ministry of Labor published a report last year, according to which, over the past decade, meat and rice consumption among Iranian citizens has halved on average, and dairy consumption has also decreased significantly.
Decreasing annual household inflation rate
The Statistical Center of Iran says that despite the increase in the point-by-point and monthly inflation rate, the annual inflation rate for households in the country has been decreasing. Accordingly, in the year ending in Farvardin 1401, the inflation rate for households in the country has decreased by one percentage point to 39.2 percent.
This decrease in inflation in Iran does not seem to be noticeable. The slogan of fighting poverty has been repeated by various governments in recent years, but reports from specialized institutions such as the Statistical Center of Iran indicate a sharp increase in absolute poverty in Iran, which the Ministry of Labor also confirmed last year.
The Statistics Center's report was published at a time when the Iranian President, in the final weeks of 1400, had asked governors to use all their capacities to eradicate absolute poverty and not let the issue drag on to the next year.
Activists and economic experts called Ebrahim Raisi's demand unprofessional and surprising. Social media users also made this directive a subject of satire and mockery.
Source: DW
