Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 20 / Trend F.Milad/
Iran's inflation rate for the eighth calendar month of Aban (ended on November 21) stood at 19.8 percent and if the economy does not suffer any external shock, the rate would hit 21.6 percent by the end of the year (March 2012), the deputy economy minister, Mohammadreza Farzin, said.
Speaking to the Mehr news agency he said despite some speculations on a surge in Iran's inflation rate by 50-500 percent after implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan, the inflation rate has remained below 25 percent, the Mehr news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Iran governor Mahmoud Bahmani announced on December 11 that the country's inflation growth rate will decline in the coming months.
Bahmani had previously said that the country's inflation rate increased by 0.8 percent to stand at 19.1 percent in the end of the seventh Iranian month of Mehr, according to Press TV.
He put last year's inflation rate at 12.4 percent.
The Iranian government is facing 100 trillion rials (some $10 billion) budget deficit due to unlawful expenditures for implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan, a member of the parliament stated earlier.
Ja'far Qaderi added that the government has so far earned 170 trillion rials out of implementing the plan, but paid around 270 trillion rials to people and industries as cash subsidies, the Mehr news agency reported.
The subsidy reform plan, launched in December 2010, allows the Iranian government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of five years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts.