Head of Statistics Center: Annual Inflation in Iran Has Become Single-Digit

The head of Iran's Statistics Center announced that after 25 years, inflation in Iran has reached single digits, hitting 9.5 percent in June. According to the IRIB news agency, Adel Azar predicted on Tuesday, July 1, that the trend of decreasing inflation would continue. Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, head of the Management and Planning Organization, also referred to the single-digit inflation rate as a 'great success' during a public session of parliament on Tuesday. Fereydoun Khavand, an economics professor in Paris, previously noted in an article for Radio Farda that severe economic recession in Iran, global deflation (declining prices of imported goods), and artificially maintaining the currency rate are among the factors contributing to the reduction of inflation in Iran. The Statistics Center of Iran reported that the inflation rate for the 12 months ending in June of this year compared to the same period last year is 9.5 percent, with a point-to-point inflation rate of 6.1 percent. The average inflation rate in Ordibehesht 95 was reported by the Statistics Center of Iran as 10.2 percent, which represents a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to the average inflation rate in Farvardin of this year. Previously, Valiollah Seif, the head of the Central Bank of Iran, had predicted in a television program that the average inflation rate would become single-digit this summer after 25 years. Reports indicate that the last time inflation was single-digit was in 1989 at 9 percent. The inflation rate when Hassan Rouhani took office was over 40 percent. According to statistics, although Mr. Rouhani's government has been successful in controlling the inflation rate, it has not achieved significant success in reviving Iran's economy. The economic growth rate, which was negative 6.8 percent in 2012, increased to negative 1.9 percent in 2013 and to 3 percent in 2014 after Rouhani's government took office. However, this figure dropped to about 1 percent in 2015. The International Monetary Fund reported Iran's economic growth rate in 2015 as zero percent and predicted it would reach four percent in 2016. In this context, the World Bank noted that Iran's economic growth would reach 4.4 percent in 2016.