Page 17 - IRANRptOct19

edges up in sixth Persian calendar month
in the 2019/2020 Persian calendar year’s sixth month​ (ended September 21) after rising 0.5% m/m, according to Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI) data.
In the food and beverages category, the SCI said the CPI increased by 46% y/y but m/m prices decreased 1.4%. Tobacco and subsidiary products such as cigarettes registered a 21.8% y/y increase.
In the clothing and footwear category the recorded increase was 47.2% y/y. Customers of utilities still under government ownership experienced a 24.1% y/y rise in prices.
Hotels and restaurants and education saw 44.7% and 24.7% price gains, respectively.
For Iran as a whole, the price of meat rose 95% y/y.
Some international economists put Iran’s inflation rate a good deal higher than what is portrayed by the country’s official statisticians.
Iran’s economy is expected to shrink for a second consecutive year in 2019 while CPI inflation could hit 50% for the year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)​ ​said in late April.
4.2.2​ PPI dynamics
Iran’s PPI up 53.9% y/y in 10th month of Persian year
PMI for Iran falls into contraction territory
The SCI announced that its analyses showed that the current PPI rate in the country stood at 53.9% in the 10th Persian calendar month. That indicates that Iran is entering hyperinflation territory.
This is in comparison to just an increase of 15.2% y/y in the fifth month of the 2018/2019 Persian calendar year (ended August 22).
The rise in the PPI can be partly ascribed to the​ ​severe devaluation of the Iranian rial (IRR)​ ​seen in recent months, with producers raising their prices to compensate for the feed-through into inflation.
A purchasing managers’ index (PMI) provided by the Iran Chamber gives the Islamic Republic a reading of 45.79 in the fifth Persian calendar month (ended August 22) compared to 50.07 in the preceding month and 50.66 in the month before that.
17​ IRAN Country Report​ October 2019 www.intellinews.com