Statistics Center Announces 2018 Inflation Rate at Approximately 27 Percent
Iran’s Statistics Center announced on Thursday, the first day of Farvardin month, in a report on the consumer price index, that the average inflation rate for the year 1397 (2018) at the end of Esfand month was 26.9 percent, which is considered the highest inflation rate in the past five years.
Based on Iran’s Statistics Center report on changes in the consumer goods and services price index, the inflation rate at the end of the year 1396 (2017) was announced as 8.2 percent, which means that the government’s achievement in achieving single-digit inflation at the end of 1396 should be considered lost.
From the year 1392 (2013) when the average inflation rate was announced at 32.8 percent until the year 1397 (2018), the announced inflation rate was less than 20 percent, and in the two years 1395 (2016) and 1396 (2017), the average inflation rate was single-digit.
According to Iran’s Statistics Center announcement, the point-to-point inflation rate in Esfand month was 47.5 percent, meaning that each household in Iran on average spent 47.5 percent more to purchase an “identical set of goods and services” in Esfand month of 1397 (2018) compared to Esfand month of 1396 (2017).
Iran’s Statistics Center announced the point-to-point inflation rate for Bahman month of the year 1397 (2018) as 42.3 percent.
The results of this report show that the monthly inflation rate in Esfand month was 3.9 percent, which indicates an increase in the general price level during a one-month period from Bahman to Esfand month. The monthly inflation rate in Bahman month was announced as 2.2 percent.
A notable point in Iran’s Statistics Center report on the inflation rate at the end of 1397 (2018) is the inflation rate of the “food and beverage” group, which experienced a 73.2 percent increase in Esfand month of 1397 (2018) compared to Esfand of 1396 (2017).
The highest inflation rate among groups and commodity categories belonged to “tobacco products,” whose price index in Esfand month of 1397 (2018) compared to Esfand month of 1396 (2017) had a 125 percent increase.
After tobacco products, the highest point-to-point inflation rate was related to the “furniture and household items and their usual maintenance” group, which in Esfand 1397 (2018) compared to the corresponding month of the previous year increased by 78.3 percent.
Among other notable points in Iran’s Statistics Center report on the inflation rate for 1397 (2018), one can point out that the average inflation rate in rural areas was higher than this rate for urban households.
The average rural inflation rate in the year 1397 (2018) was announced as 28.1 percent, while the 12-month urban inflation rate in the year that passed was 26.6 percent and lower than the average inflation index for the entire country.
The announcement of a significant increase in inflation at the end of last year comes at a time when Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, in his Nowruz message, called the year 1398 (2019) the year of “controlling inflation” and “balancing the exchange rate.”
In the year 1397 (2018), with the disruption of the foreign exchange market and an unprecedented increase in prices in the open foreign exchange market, the prices of all kinds of goods and services also showed an upward trend.
Among these, experts consider government and banks’ debt to the central bank and the financing of budget deficits from the central bank’s resources as among the inflation-causing factors in Iran’s economic structure.
It is predicted that the government will also face budget deficit problems and financing problems in the year 1398 (2019), and if the method of financing this deficit is borrowing from the central bank and using this bank’s resources, it could potentially face the inflation rate with a larger increase.
Source: Radio Farda
