September 03 2021
The inflation rate continued downward last month, but only by the very modest amount of 0.4 percentage points. The rate as of the Persian month of Mordad, as compared to the same month last year, was reported by the Statistical Center of Iran to be 43.2 percent, compared to 43.6 percent as of the previous month. The inflation rate just barely missed passing 50 percent annually, reaching 49.5 percent in the first month of the current year, just after Now Ruz, before starting to retreat. A second way of measuring inflation is by averaging the monthly rates over the previous 12 months. By that measure, inflation still rose last month by one full percentage point to 45.2 percent. But the comparison with the same month last year is generally more closely watched because it tends to be a “leading indicator,” pointing out the direction in which the economy is moving.