Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 8 / Trend M. Moezzi/
A day after the head of Iran's central bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, announced a 19.8 percent inflation rate for October/November (the month of Aban on the Iranian calendar), a website connected to a member of Iran's parliament said the rate was 24.8 percent, according to Jahan-e-Eghtesad newspaper.
The Statistical Centre of Iran calculated Iran's consumer price index (CPI) at 24.8 percent for the 12 months ending in Oct/Nov., according to the newspaper. The Centre put the point to point inflation rate at 28.1 percent, higher than the 19.8 percent announced by Mr. Bahmani, the website Alef, connected to Ahmad Tavakoli the head of the Iranian parliament's research center reported.
According to the Statistical Centre's figures, the biggest increase in commodity groups was for food, and goods and other services with a 34.8 percent and 45.4 percent increase respectively.
There is a noticeable difference between the figures given by the two centers. The last figures announced by the Central Bank were for April/May of this year and declared the CPI to be 13.2 percent and point to point inflation to be 19.7 percent. The Statistical Centre of Iran calculated the rates to be 15.3 percent and 24.4 percent over the same period. The CPI rate has increased three times more than the price index for services meaning the CPI had grown 43.1 percent in the 12 months ending in Oct/Nov while the rate of increase for the price index for services was only 12.3 percent.
Citing the government's targeted subsidies program as the reason for the leap in inflation, Alef reported that the government first tried to keep prices down by pressuring the markets but wasn't successful in the long run.