Some analysts put the inflation rate at more than 100 percent
NCRI – Inflation rate in Iran has reached 31.5 percent in the 12 months to March 20, which was the end of Iran’s calendar year, according to figures released by the Iranian regime’s statistics centre.
Inflation was 27.4 percent at the end of last December, according to previously released official data. The rate was 26.4 percent in March 2012.
Many economists say the real rate could be at least double the official rate, partly because it does not fully take into account the prices of many imported goods, which have become prohibitively expensive. The main reason is the severe depreciation of the rial, Iran’s national currency.
he French economic daily Les Echo reported on February 5 that according to a classified report by the Majlis Research Center of the Iranian regime’s Parliament the inflation rate has reached to 88 percent in the past 12 months.
Steve H. Hanke, a Johns Hopkins University economics professor and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Washington research group, who has been following Iran’s economy, said in a report that that the official inflation rate reflected what he called the Central Bank’s “habit of failing to release useful economic data, and what it does release often has what I would describe as an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality.”
“Ever since hyperinflation briefly reared its head, back in October, the Iranian government has tried to prop up its faltering currency and stop its economy’s death spiral through force and deception,” Mr. Hanke wrote in an article titled “Iran’s Lying Inflation Statistics,” published in Cato Institute website.
According to the calculation that was done by using objective, market-based data Mr. Hanks believes the true rate of inflation is a whopping four times higher than the official reported rate.
According to Mr. Hanke’s calculations, Iran’s inflation rate last year was 110 percent.
One of the most senior cleric of the Iranian regime and a close ally of Supreme Leader said on February 15 that high prices in the country are “back breaking,” but dismissed claims considering international sanction as its main cause.
Ahmad Jannati, the Chairman of Guardian Council was speaking at so-called Friday Prayers in Tehran, the weekly gathering in which the views of Ali Khamenei on important issues of the regime are addressed.
Responding to a question on the cause of high prices, he said: “ One of the causes are the sanctions but some people want to blame it all on the sanction this is while the experts reject that claim. mismanagement, wrong policies, etc has created such situation.”
