Point-to-Point Inflation Rate Reaches Over 52 Percent in Ordibehesht 1398
Iran’s Statistical Center says point-to-point inflation in Ordibehesht of this year reached 52.1 percent.
Point-to-point inflation refers to the rate of price increase in one month compared to the same month of the previous year.
The twelve-month inflation rate ending in Ordibehesht 1398 (annual inflation) has also risen to 34.2 percent.
According to this report released by Iran’s Statistical Center on Wednesday, the first day of Khordad, the inflation rate was not uniform across all goods.
Price increases for food, beverages, and tobacco products in Ordibehesht compared to the same period last year were 82.6 percent, but this figure was 39.9 percent for non-food goods and services.
According to the report, the prices of various types of meat over the past month compared to Ordibehesht last year more than doubled, fruit and vegetable prices increased by more than 112 to 136 percent, and sugar prices saw an 85 percent increase.
However, these statistics are very conservative and are largely based on government price settings.
For example, Iranian media recently reported sugar becoming “scarce” in the markets and wrote that the price of sugar in the black market has reached above 10,000 tomans, while at the beginning of last year sugar prices were below 3,000 tomans. These figures indicate that sugar prices have actually increased by at least 233 percent, not the 85 percent reported by the Statistical Center.
Over recent months, many reports have been published about shortages of essential goods in the market, including red meat and chicken, onions, canned tuna, pasta, and paper.
Iran’s official statistics have always been subject to serious scrutiny by experts.
Inflation rose when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA in Ordibehesht last year, with a significant portion of it due to a 70 percent depreciation of the rial against the dollar.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund warned that Iran’s annual inflation rate in the current calendar year could reach as high as 50 percent.
As a result, inflation in Iran, according to the International Monetary Fund’s statistics, would be the highest in the world after Venezuela and Zimbabwe, and would be equal to Sudan’s inflation.
Meanwhile, the Statistical Center’s report indicates that rural inflation was much higher than urban inflation. Urban point-to-point inflation in Ordibehesht was 50.7 percent, but this same indicator for rural areas was around 59.6 percent.
The lowest inflation rate among commodity groups and services was related to fuel, electricity and water prices, housing prices and rent, as well as education and health and medicine, with price increases in these sectors in Ordibehesht this year compared to the same period last year ranging between 21 to 29 percent.
Source: Radio Farda
