SLIDING

March 25, 2022

The rate of inflation fell last month, although only marginally. The government of President Raisi is nowhere near getting the rate below the goal of 10 percent which would still leave Iran with one of the highest inflation rates in the world.  Compared with the same month of the previous year, the inflation rate for the Persian month ending February 19 came in at 35.4 percent, a half percentage point less than the 35.9 percent recorded in the month ending January 20.

This is the most important way of calculating inflation and the rate has been almost level the last four months at 35.7, 35.2, 35.9 and 35.4.  By another methodology, the average rate for the preceding 12 months, the inflation rate was also down last month, coming in at 41.4 percent or a full percentage point  below the 42.4 percent recorded the previous month.   The IMF currently lists only two countries with inflation higher than Iran and the World Bank lists only five although both have no data from some countries that likely have higher inflation rates.

But, of more than 200 economies, the IMF lists only 10 countries with rates lower than Iran but higher than 10 percent and the World Bank lists only 11 in that category.  So, Iran is nowhere near a “normal” inflation rate.  The global average last year was 5 percent.