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The latest bout of hyper-inflation comes after recent figures showed the cost of meat had also risen by 60 per cent in the past few days alone. Chicken also tripled in price in just four months last year.
The price hikes have triggered warnings among some officials that Iran’s poorest people could stage nationwide protests at the rocketing cost of food, especially during the forthcoming presidential election.
The head of the country’s inspection organization, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said in January that if Europe was as expensive as Iran, its citizens would hold a revolution.
The warning come after recent Iranian Central Bank figures showed the overall cost of food had risen by 400 per cent in seven years in the regime.
But despite the inflation, rulers are still blaming financial mismanagement and not economic sanctions for the ballooning inflation.
Experts have said one reason for the price rises is that the regime is not exchanging foreign currency for importers at the official rate, but forcing them to trade at the market exchange rate which is 3.5 times higher.
Senior cleric Ahmad Jannati – the Chairman of Guardian Council and a close ally of Supreme Leader – already admitted on March 12 that the high prices were ‘back-breaking’ but dismissed claims they were entirely due to sanctions.
Speaking at Friday Prayers in Tehran last week, the weekly gathering in which the views of Ali Khamenei on important issues of the regime are addressed – Jannati said: “One of the causes is the sanctions, but some people want to blame it all on the sanctions. However this is rejected by experts who also blame mismanagement and the wrong policies.”