Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30
By Fatih Karimov – Trend
The producer price index (PPI) in a 12-month period to the seventh Iranian calendar month of Mehr (ended Oct. 21) indicates an increase by 3.9 percent year-on-year.
The figure shows a 0.5-percent increase compared to the preceding 12-month period, the Central Bank of Iran reported Oct. 30.
Counting the Iranian fiscal year of 1390 (March 21, 2011 to March 20, 2012) as the main one, that is 1390=100, the PPI reached 224.5 in the Iranian month of Mehr this year (Aug. 21-Oct. 21).
PPI in Iran is measured based on the prices of 708 items of goods and services categorized into eight groups of agriculture, forestation, and fishery, industry, transportation and warehousing, hotels and restaurants, information and telecommunication, education, health and social welfare, and other public and private services.
The highest growth was related to the health and social welfare, with an 18-percent growth, and the lowest growth was related to the agriculture, forestation, and fishery sector, with a 1.7-percent growth.
The industry sector registered a growth by 2.4 percent, meanwhile the index related to hotels and restaurants witnessed a 10.7 percent growth year-on-year.
PPI measures the average change in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services over time. The PPI envisages three areas of production: industry-based, commodity-based, and stage-of-processing-based companies.
It should be noted that the core PPI can serve multiple roles in improving investment-making decisions as it can serve as a leading indicator for Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is the most frequently cited measure of inflation.