Rich-Poor Inflation Gap at 5.4%

EghtesadOnline: The average annual inflation gap measured by the Statistical Center of Iran among income deciles stood at 5.4% in the fifth Iranian month (July 23-Aug. 22), indicating a 0.8 percentage point decrease compared with the previous month (6.2%).

News ID: ۷۸۶۹۱۶

30 August 2021

The inflation gap in “food, beverages and tobacco” group among income deciles decreased by 0.5 percentage points and that of “non-food and services” group reduced by one percentage point compared with the month before.

The average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending Aug. 22 increased by 46% for the first decile (those with the lowest income) while it grew 50% for the 10th decile (those with the highest income).

“Food, beverages and tobacco” group’s annual inflation increased by 59.1% for the first decile and 54.8% for the 10th decile. “Non-food and services” group inflation grew 33.3% for the first decile and 48.8% for the 10th decile.

Average annual inflation rates grew by 46.3% for the second decile compared with last year’s corresponding period; 45.7% for the third decile; 45.2% for the fourth; 44.9% for fifth decile; 44.6% for the sixth decile; 45.2% for the seventh decile; 45.3% for the eighth decile and 46.8% for the ninth decile.

The highest overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 361.4 for the 10th decile and the lowest calculated was 335.6 for the first decile.

The first deciles registered a 3.6% month-on-month inflation; the second decile saw monthly inflation of 3.5%; the third 3.4%; the fourth, fifth and 10th deciles 3.3%; the sixth, seventh and ninth 3.2% and the ninth decile posted a 3.2% month-on-month inflation rate.

The year-on-year inflation rates increased by 46.4% for the first decile during the month under review, 46.2% for the second, 45.2% for third, 44.5% for fourth, 43.8% for fifth, 43.1% for sixth, 42.7% for seventh, 42% for eighth, 41.9% for ninth and 42.3% for 10th decile.

Income deciles are groupings that result from ranking either all households or all persons in the population in the ascending order according to income, and then dividing the population into 10 groups, each comprising approximately 10% of the estimated population.

Irrespective of income deciles, the average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending Aug. 22, which marks the end of the fifth Iranian month of fiscal 2021-22, increased by 45.2% compared with the corresponding period of the year before.

The rate is an all-time high since fiscal 2017-18 when SCI’s database featured the earliest statistics on CPI in Iran.

SCI had put the average annual inflation rate for the preceding Iranian month ending July 22 at 44.2%.

The consumer inflation for the month under review (July 23-Aug. 22) registered an increase of 43.2% compared with the similar month of the previous Iranian year. The year-on-year inflation of the month ending July 22 was 43.6%.

The overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 337.8 for the month to Aug. 22, indicating a 3.2% rise compared with the month before. Month-on-month consumer inflation was 3.5% for the preceding month.

SCI put average inflation for urban and rural areas at 44.5% and 48.7%, respectively.

CPI registered a year-on-year increase of 42.4% for urban areas and 47.7% for rural areas in the month ending Aug. 22.

The overall CPI reached 334.1 for urban households and 358.1 for rural households, indicating a month-on-month growth of 3.2% for each.

The highest and lowest monthly growth in the index among 12 groups of the basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households in the Iranian month ending Aug. 22 was recorded for “Food and Beverage” group with 4.6% and “Communications” and “Education” groups with 1% each.

The highest year-on-year inflation in the month under review was posted for “Hotels and Restaurants” with 63.1% while the lowest YOY inflation was registered for “Communications” with 7.3%.

The highest and lowest annualized inflation was registered for “Transportation” with 61.3% and “Communications” with 17.8%.