The bank announced the rate for the just ended Persian year 1390 in a brief, two-paragraph news release posted on its website
The announced rate ranks the Islamic Republic as having the fifth highest affliction of inflation among more than 200 economies in the world, a statistic the news release did not mention.
It also was the second highest inflation rate posted in the last 16 years and makes mincemeat of forecasts the government made last year that the rate would be down into single digits by now.
According to the CIA website’s posting of inflation rates around the world, these are the seven countries with a rate of 20 percent or more for the most recent year for which data are available:
Belarus 52.4%
Ethiopia 33.2%
Venezuela 27.6%
Argentina 22.0%
Iran 21.5%
Yemen 20.0%
Eritrea 20.0%
The lowest inflation posted for last year was in Bahrain, which showed a rate of just 0.3 percent. Among major countries, the 2011 rates were 2.8 percent in Canada, 2.9 percent in the EU, 3.0 percent in the United States and 4.5 percent in the United Kingdom.
It was a surprise that the Central Bank posted the figure on its website. Last fall, the task of handling the inflation calculations was handed over to the Statistics Center. The bank has not posted inflation statistics since last Aban (October-November 2011).
The table below shows the annual rates for Iran in the last 22 years, using the calculation for inflation over 12 months. The brutal and record setting rate of 49.5 percent in 1994-95 is not a typo; it is the official figure for that year.
1369 (90-91) 20.4%
1370 (91-92) 24.6%
1371 (92-93) 22.9%
1372 (93-94) 35.0%
1373 (94-95) 49.5%
1374 (95-96) 23.1%
1375 (96-97) 17.4%
1376 (97-98) 18.1%
1377 (98-99) 20.1%
1378 (99-00) 12.6%
1379 (00-01) 11.4%
1380 (01-02) 15.8%
1381 (02-03) 15.6%
1382 (03-04) 15.2%
1383 (04-05) 16.7%
1384 (05-06) 12.1%
1385 (06-07) 13.6%
1386 (07-08) 18.4%
1387 (08-09) 25.4%
1388 (09-10) 10.8%
1389 (10-11) 12.4%
1390 (11-12) 21.5%
In the 50s and 60s, Iran enjoyed one of the most stable currencies in the world with little inflation. After the oil price hike of 1973, money poured into Iran and inflation became a problem. But after the revolution of 1979, inflation skyrocketed and has never really been tamed. In no year since the revolution has the inflation rate fallen into single digits by the official measurement—and most economists believe the official measure bypasses much inflation.
