Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 7/ Trend F.Milad/
The inflation rate in Iran for the 12-month period ended September 22 hit 24.9 per cent, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced on Wednesday, the Mehr News Agency reported.
After a considerable delay, the CBI announced the official inflation rate during the Iranian month of Shahrivar (August 22-spetember 21) as being 24 per cent.
The real rate of inflation in Iran is over 50 per cent, Iranian university lecturer and economist, Mehdi Taghavi, said in October, adding that while the average economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa region was five per cent and Iran's economy has been shrinking.
It is while according to the official statistics released by the Iranian Central Bank, the nation's inflation rate in August 2010 stood at 23.5 per cent.
In its semi-annual World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecasted Iran's gross domestic product would shrink 0.9 per cent this year after a two per cent growth in 2011.
Its prediction for this year was a downgrade from a forecast of 0.4 per cent growth in its last report in April, but the IMF projected GDP would expand next year by 0.8 per cent.
The IMF expects inflation to moderate to 21.8 per cent in 2013 from 25.2 per cent in 2012; but many private economists think the country's inflation is well over 30 per cent.