Iran’s annual inflation up 0.7% to 33.2% in April: SCI

EghtesadOnline: Figures published by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) on Wednesday showed that the consumer price index in the country had reached 328.1 in the year to April 20, an increase of 33.2% compared to the year to late April 2024.

The SCI said that Iran’s headline inflation rate in April showed an increase of 0.7% compared to March, adding that inflation had increased by 3.9% on a monthly basis.

SCI’s data showed that prices of food, beverages, and smoking products in Iran had increased by 4.2% over April, while inflation of non-food products and services had risen by 3.8% over the same period.

Inflation measured on a point-to-point scale, which compares the rate in two same months in back-to-back years, was 38.9% in April, up 1.8% from the same rate reported in March, the agency said.

Iran has been grappling with high but controlled levels of inflation since 2020, a year after the US toughened its sanctions on Iranian oil exports and when the country was starting to feel the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran’s annual inflation rate rose to nearly 49.1% in May 2023, just shy of an all-time record reported some three decades ago.

Experts say Iran’s rising inflation in April was mainly the result of a major increase in hard currency prices that came after US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum in early February ordering a campaign of maximum pressure on Tehran.

Currency prices have eased in Iran since early April, when Iran and the US started indirect talks about Tehran’s nuclear program.