SECOND HIGHEST EVER

May 14, 2021

The Islamic Republic has once again dodged a bullet and finished the first month of the Persian year with an inflation rate again just under 50 percent.  It was 49.5 percent as of April 20 when compared with the same month of the previous Persian year. The annual rate inched up to 49.5 percent after inching up from 48.7 percent the previous month and 48.2 percent the month before that, barely managing to stay below the psychologically sensitive 50 percent mark.

Of the dozen components of the inflation calculation, the food and beverage category, which is the one the public most notices, came to 63.5 percent.  By the other inflation measurement used by Iran the annual average rate of inflation the rate as of April 20 was 38.9 percent, up from 36.4 percent the previous month and 34.2 percent the month before that.

As the chart below shows, the annual rate of inflation for last year, at 48.7 percent, was the second highest Iran has ever suffered beating only the 49.7 percent recorded in 1995-96.  But it was way above the previous year’s inflation rate of 34.8 percent.  Out of more than 200 economies tracked by the International Monetary Fund, only five show a higher inflation rate than Iran.