Crisis of Trust in Official Statistics in Iran; A Government Official: The Statistical Gap Between the Central Bank and the Statistical Center Questions the 'Legitimacy of Data'

Following months of the 'confidential' announcement of the release of certain economic statistics and significant discrepancies between the reports of various official institutions, the head of the Planning and Budget Organization of the Islamic Republic criticized the 'statistical gap' between the Central Bank and the Statistical Center, stating that this situation 'questions the legitimacy of the data.' According to the ILNA news agency, Davood Manzoor, head of the Planning and Budget Organization under President Ebrahim Raisi, said there should not be a significant gap between the statistics and data 'produced by the agencies,' 'especially regarding national account information.' In response to the widespread distrust in government statistics, he urged senior managers of statistical institutions to 'focus on producing and disseminating reliable information.' In recent months, the Islamic Republic government has limited or halted the publication of certain statistics, including price changes in food items or inflation in sectors such as automobiles and housing, which are on the rise. Although the prevention of the release of real statistics and free information in Iran is not limited to economic sectors, even in public matters such as 'social harms,' security institutions such as the 'National Security Council' have intervened, monopolizing the announcement of related information to specific government sectors like the Ministry of Interior of the Islamic Republic. The circle of contradictory statistics or those with prohibitions or extensive restrictions on public release has also reached the health and medical sectors, to the extent that, according to the Ham-Mihan newspaper published on the second of Mordad, the head of the Welfare Organization of the Islamic Republic also evaded announcing the number of 'disabled newborns,' declaring the statistics as 'confidential.' Currently, the Iranian economy is facing major crises, including widespread corruption in government entities related to major trade and commerce sectors, extensive government intervention in markets, lack of independence of professional institutions, banking sanctions (due to the controversial actions of the Islamic Republic), and stagflation, where the lack of accurate and credible statistics poses challenges to any operational analysis and planning.