“Food and tobacco” (94,505,000 rials or $814) accounted for 24% of total expenditures, whereas expenditure on non-food category stood at 298,772,000 rials or $2,575, accounting for 76% of total spending.
Meat accounted for 21% (the biggest share) of the overall urban households’ expenditures in this category. Housing and fuel costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 45%.
Urban households declared they received an average income of 434,905,000 rials ($3,749) last year, which shows an 18.6% rise compared with the previous year. This should be held against the backdrop of a 26.9% inflation rate reported by the Statistical Center of Iran, according to Financial Tribune.
The overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 164.3 in the final month of last Iranian year (Feb. 20-March 20, 2019), indicating a 3.9% rise compared with the previous month.
The consumer inflation registered a year-on-year increase of 47.5% in the month under review compared with the similar month of last year.
SCI put last year's inflation for urban and rural regions at 26.6% and 28.1% respectively.
The index registered a year-on-year increase of 46.6% for urban areas and 52.7% for rural areas compared with the similar month of last year.
The overall CPI reached 163.3 for urban households and 170.3 for rural households, indicating an increase of 3.8% for urban areas and 4.5% for rural areas compared with the previous month.
Other findings of the SCI report about urban households are as follows:
Sources of generating income for urban households were “paid-employment jobs” (33.4%), “self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment” (17%) and “miscellaneous sources of income” (49.6%).
The percentage of urban households that owned cars improved from 50.6% in the fiscal 2017-18 to 53.2% in the fiscal 2018-19.
The percentage of households using refrigerators and freezers increased from 63.2% to 68.5%, vacuum cleaners from 91% to 91.5%, washing machines from 86.3% to 86.6%, dishwashers from 7.3% to 8.4%, stoves from 98.9% to 99.2% and the percentage of urban households owning microwave and halogen ovens went up from 12.4% to 12.6% during the period.
Last year, 93.7% of urban households used natural gas for heating.
Rural Households
The average expenditure of rural households last year stood at 214,472,000 rials ($1,848), which registers a 20% rise compared with the year before.
Food and tobacco costs constituted 37% or 80,246,000 rials ($691) and non-food costs amounted to 63% or 134,226,000 rials ($1,157) of the total rural families’ expenses.
Flour, noodle, grains and bread accounted for 24% (the biggest share) of the overall rural households’ expenditures in the “food and tobacco” category, whereas housing and fuel costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 28%.
The average yearly income of rural households was 233,114,000 rials ($2,009) that shows a 15.5% increase compared to the previous year.
Sources of generating income were paid-employment jobs (30.7%), self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment (31.9%) and miscellaneous sources of income (37.4%).
Other findings of the SCI report about urban households are as follows:
The percentage of rural households with cars improved from 29.6% in the fiscal 2017-18 to 32.3% in the fiscal 2018-19.
Rural households with refrigerators and freezers increased from 45.2% to 49.2%, stoves from 98% to 98.3%, vacuum cleaners from 64.6% to 66.1%, washing machines from 53.9% to 56%, dishwashers from 0.3% to 0.5% and those owning microwave and halogen ovens went up from 1.9% to 2% during the period.
In the last fiscal year, 67.8% of rural households used natural gas while 20.4% used kerosene for heating.
Urban households residing in Tehran Province recorded the highest annual expenditure with 584,676,000 rials ($5,040) and those living in Kerman had the lowest annual expenditure with 237,415,000 rials ($2,046) last year.
The annual income of Tehran Province’s urban families stood at 640,303,000 rials or $5,519 (the highest among Iranian provinces) and that of West Azarbaijan’s households hovered around 264,711,000 rials or $2,281 (the lowest among Iranian provinces) last year.
The latest SCI report is based on a survey of 20,350 urban households and 18,610 rural households.
CPI Basket of Goods & Services
The highest month-on-month inflation among 12 goods and services groups in the month ending March 20 was recorded for the “transportation’” group with a 9.3% increase followed by “foods and beverages” with a 6.5% rise and “clothing and shoes” with a 5% increase compared with the preceding month.
“Education” was the only group with a zero monthly inflation rate.
The “Tobacco” group registered the highest and “education” group posted the lowest year-on-year CPI increase among the 12 groups of goods and services with 125% and 21.1%, respectively.
The annual inflation rate of “tobacco” group was the highest in the 12-month leading to March 20 with 102.4% and that of “housing, water, electricity, natural gas and other fuels” group had the slowest annual inflation rate of 16.8%.
The Consumer Price Index of “food and beverages” stood at 200.4, indicating a 6.5% rise compared with the previous month.
The “food and beverages” index registered a year-on-year increase of 73.2% compared with the similar month of last year.
The CPI of “food and beverages” group in the 12-month period ending March 20 increased by 36.8% compared with last year’s corresponding period, SCI reported.
The retail price for tomato paste increased by 242% compared with the same month of last year.
A kilogram of tomato paste went for 191,282 rials ($1.42) in the final Iranian month, to register the highest year-on-year price rise for a food item, SCI said.
The second and third biggest year-on-year price rises in the month under review among food items were registered for apples and lamb with 140.6% and 135.4%, respectively. A kilo of apples was sold at 91,001 rials (67 cents) and a kilo of lamb went for 955,735 rials ($7.1).
The month saw sugar price rose by 38.5% compared with the previous month, the highest month-on-month price rise among food items. The second and third biggest month-on-month price rises during the period were recorded for sugar cubes with 25.5% and onions with 25.4%.
There was no report on year-on-year price declines for food items in the month ending March 20, 2019, but the prices of eggs and bananas decreased by 4% and 1% month-on-month. A kilogram of eggs was sold at 95,418 rials (71 cents) and a kilogram of bananas went for 125,636 rials (93 cents) in the month under review.