Governor of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic: Non-publication of Certain Statistics Has Security Considerations

The Governor of the Central Bank reacted to the non-publication of statistics, including inflation, stating that the law mandates the Statistical Center to publish it, so we will no longer publish it. This senior banking official considered this issue more of 'a legal mandate' and emphasized that some statistics are not published due to 'security considerations.' Mohammad Reza Farzin stressed that although there are still disagreements regarding the source of the statistics, we have refrained from publishing inflation-related statistics due to its legal implications. Farzin mentioned that the pause in publishing statistics related to the housing market was also due to disagreements over the accuracy and credibility of the statistical sources, which has been resolved, and the publication of those statistics has recently resumed. In part of his statements, the Central Bank Governor implicitly confirmed the existence of a security perspective in the publication of statistics and the interference of security institutions in the publication of statistics, stating that some economic statistics may not be necessary to be publicly published due to limitations and security considerations. The unavailability of statistics for economic planning is the main point criticized by economic activists, who have interpreted the non-publication of statistical reports by the Statistical Center and the Central Bank as 'statistical imprisonment.' The newspaper 'Donya-e-Eqtesad' addressed this issue on May 1st, considering it a way for managers not to be judged in their performance area, and noted that this issue could lead to a new trend in the arbitrary handling of the publication of organizational statistics. The non-publication of statistics, especially in the area of the consumer price index, which has been on the Statistical Center's agenda since the beginning of this year, has been interpreted by analysts as 'controlling inflation' through statistical imprisonment. This is a matter that 'Donya-e-Eqtesad,' as one of Iran's official media, has also emphasized, stating: 'Achieving inflation control requires accessible statistics.' Accordingly, 'Tehran housing prices,' 'national housing prices,' 'Tehran rents,' 'national rents,' 'transaction volumes,' 'housing construction volumes,' 'construction investment levels,' 'budget performance,' and monthly reports from the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade and the Ministry of Oil are other items that are no longer published. The news agency 'ILNA' also published an analytical report on 'controlling inflation' through 'number manipulation,' arguing that the government, contrary to the law, refrains from calculating and regularly publishing the 'poverty line.'