Baku, Azerbaijan, April 25
By Trend:
Iran’s Central Bank in a report released April 25 confirmed that the country’s inflation rate is on decreasing path.
Inflation rate in Iran’s urban areas for the 12-month period to the last Iranian calendar month (ended on April 20) hit 9.2 percent, registering a 0.4 percent fall compared to the preceding month, according to the CBI.
Earlier the Statistics Center of Iran put the inflation rate for the same period at 8 percent, 0.1 percent less compared to its figure for last month.
The CBI report indicates a 1.2 percent difference between the figures unveiled by the two official Iranian entities.
The announced inflation rate between the two organizations has been different in recent months and the Statistical Center's inflation rate has been lower than that of the Central Bank.
The Central Bank also said that setting the Iranian fiscal year 1395 (March 21, 2016 to March 20, 2017) as the main one, that is 1395=100, the consumer price index (CPI) in Iran’s urban areas stood at 115.6 units in the last Iranian calendar month, which is 0.8 percent more than in the preceding month.
The figure shows an annual growth of 7.9 percent.
The index for foods and drinks shows an increase by 1.7 percent compared to the preceding month and a growth rate of 5 percent compared to the same time of last year, according to the CBI.
The index for tobacco registered a rise by 2.4 percent compared to the preceding month and a growth rate of 20.6 percent when compared to the same time last year.
The index for clothes and health care increased by 5.9 and 8.6 percent year-on-year, meanwhile the index for housing, electricity and fuels witnessed an 8.8 percent increase.
The education sector registered an annual growth of 14.1 percent.
The annual increase for ICT, transportation and service sectors stood at 2.4, 7.9 and 9.8 percent, respectively.
The Iranian Parliament Research Center has forecasted that Iran’ inflation rate in the current fiscal year (started March 20) will become 11.5 percent.
The inflation rate in Iran in 2005 was about 10.4 percent, but it climbed above 37 percent, before President Hassan Rouhani came to power in mid-2013. Nonetheless, for the first time over the past 26 years, that figure declined into a single-digit row, bottoming out at 8.6 percent in June 2016.