NCRI – The Iranian regime’s official data about inflation are inconsistent with reality, a senior ranking cleric associated with the Iranian regime has charged, according to the state-run news agency Mehr.
Mullah Makarem Shirazi criticized what he said were “statistics that are inconsistent with reality,” and said, “We see continual announcement of statistics about decreasing rate of inflation but this contradicts people’s first hand experiences.”
Shirazi’s attack on the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes even as the mullahs’ Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has warned regime officials against disapproving of official government statistics.
Last month, Khamenei lambasted “unfounded doubts about statistics offered by responsible government organs,” adding, “We must avoid doing things that erode public trust … and one should not speak in a manner that makes people pessimistic about the government, the Majlis [Parliament] or the judiciary.”
But Khamenei’s warnings have been publicly ignored by some factions within the regime, and Shirazi is only one example.
The Central Bank of Iran said on Sunday that the rate of inflation was 8.8% during the past 12 months, and has actually followed a declining trend. But a group of Majlis deputies cast doubt on the numbers. The Economic Committee of the mullahs’ Majlis summoned Mahmoud Bahmani, the head of the Central Bank, to explain about the method of calculating the rate.
One of the committee’s members, Kazem Khoshdel, said the 8.8% number is for “domestic consumption” and conflicts with “realities” prevalent in society.
“They calculate the rate of inflation on the basis of only 300 goods. The basket of goods has recently been even further reduced in size,” the Majlis deputy said.
Another deputy, Mousa Servati, said even assuming that inflation was reduced, the regime is still facing rising unemployment and an economic slump.
Due to its persistent defiance of UN resolutions over its nuclear weapons program, the Iranian regime has been hit with four rounds of UN sanctions and complementary independent punitive economic measures by the US, European Union, Japan, Canada and a number of other countries.
Both in public and private, some officials in the Iranian regime have admitted to the pain of sanctions, expressing fears over more comprehensive measures in the future.
