Inflation Breaks 6 Year Record
Oil Revenues of Past 3 Years Equal Those of 16 Earlier Years - 2008.05.11
Amin Raufinejad
Statistics released by Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) indicate that the inflation over the past 12 months that ended on April has been rising at an unusually high rate of 19.5 percent, which is the highest during the last 6 years. During the month Farvardin (March 20 –April 19) the price index for commodities and services in towns and cities has also shown a 3.1 percent growth which is 24.2 percent higher than in the same month last year. This rate of inflation comes at a time when the current administration that came to power over 3 years ago has been enjoying oil revenues of over $220 billion during the last 3 years which equals the total amount that 2 previous administrations jointly earned, i.e. oil income during 16 earlier years ending in 2005.
These statistics also show that the $220 billion that had been earned by the two earlier administrations ending in 2005 (i.e. an annual income of about $13 billion) succeeded in increasing the country’s economic production two-fold, while with the windfall oil revenues of the past 3 years that equals the same amount of Dollars, economic production has increased only by one eight.
According to the CBI during the first Iranian calendar month (that began on March 20th) the rate of inflation had a significant sharp rise when compared to the months preceding it. These conclusions are evident when the inflation rate of 2 earlier years is taken into account.
In April of last year, the CBI announced inflation to stand at 12.8 percent, while during May it rose to 13.6 percent, in June to 14.2 percent, in July to 14.8 percent, in August to 15.4 percent, in September to 15.4 percent, in October to16.2 percent, in November to 16.8 percent, in December to 17.2 percent, in January to 17.5 percent, in February to 17.8 percent, and in March 2008 to 18.4 percent.
The most recent statistics indicate that the rate has risen to 19.5 percent which is unprecedented when compared to the previous year. In contrast to these statistics, the President’s deputy for planning had earlier announced that the rate of inflation for this year would be 15.3 percent.
