Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.3/ Trend F.Milad/
Implementing the second phase of the subsidy reform plan will increase the inflation rate in Iran by 10 percent, an economic expert predicted.
The inflammatory effects of implementation of the subsidy reform plan during the past year have raised unemployment among laborers, Shahin Shayan Arani told the ILNA News agency. He added that the country will see huge number of jobless people once the second phase of the plan is carried out.
The statistical center has said that the second phase of the subsidy reform plan will add 6.2 percent to the current inflation rate, he said, "But, experts believe that the second phase of the plan will increase the inflation rate by over 10 percent," he added.
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.
The second phase of implementation of the plan has envisaged removing subsidies of three million Iranian families. The Iranian government plans to pay more cash subsidies to the economically vulnerable strata and cut subsidies of the well-off families.
Iran's High Council of Employment has approved allocation of 45 trillion rials (some $37 billion) to job creation plans in the current calendar year, which began on March 20, Deputy Minister Of Cooperatives, Labor, And Social Welfare Mohammad-Hossein Forouzanmehr said.
The Mehr News Agency quoted Forouzanmehr as saying that some 1.6 million jobs were created last year.
The unemployment rate in Iran hit 12.3 percent in the past calendar year, which ended on March 19, showing a 1.2-percent fall compared to its preceding year, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.
The IRNA News Agency quoted the report as saying that the number of jobless individuals has reduced to 2.8 million from 3.2 million year on year.