October 05, 2018
Inflation is skyrocketing in Iran, with the rate last month soaring above 30 percent. The annual rate for the month of Shahrivar, ending September 22, was 31.4 percent. Iran’s inflation rate has never been that high before except in the mid-1990s, before this chart begins, and for a 16-month stretch in 2012-2013, shown above. The speed of the jump from below 10 percent four months ago to 31.4 percent now is unprecedented. The surge is attributed largely to the collapse of the rial, which has lost almost half its value since May, when the inflation rate was last below 10 percent. By the second inflation measure used by the Central Bank of Iran, the average rise over the previous 12 months, the inflation rate was 13.5 percent last month. The 12-month average almost always trails the trend of the comparison with the same month of the previous year. The CIA tracks the inflation rate in 227 economies. Iran’s latest rate makes it the sixth worst in the world. Angola is listed at 31.7 percent, Sudan at 32.4 percent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo at 41.4 percent, with South Sudan and Venezuela collapsing so swiftly that the CIA no longer bothers to post figures for them.
