TEHRAN- The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) announced that the inflation rate in the twelve-month period ended on January 20, which marks the end of the tenth Iranian calendar month of Dey, stood at 38.6 percent.

The SCI said that the inflation rate has fallen 1.4 percent in the mentioned time span from the twelve-month period ended in the last day of the ninth Iranian month of Azar, IRNA reported.

The center also announced that the point-to-point inflation rate has dropped 1.5 percent to 26.3 percent in the tenth month of this year from the same month in the previous year, while it has risen from the figure of the last month.

Point-to-point inflation has fallen 1.4 percent to 26.2 percent in the urban areas and slid 1.9 percent to 27 percent in the rural regions on a monthly basis, the same report confirmed.

As previously announced by SCI, the inflation rate in the twelve-month period ended on December 21, 2019, which marks the end of the ninth Iranian calendar month of Azar, stood at 40 percent, falling 1.1 percent from the twelve-month period ended in the last day of the eight Iranian month of Aban.

In the Iranian calendar year of 1395 (ended on March 20, 2017), Iran could manage to experience a single-digit inflation rate after 26 years.

The inflation rate stood at 9.8 percent in that year according to the Statistical Center of Iran and at nine percent according to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

But since the last year’s calendar month of Khordad (ended on June 22, 2018), when the inflation rate stood at 10.2 percent, as announced by the CBI, the country’s experiencing double-digit inflation rates again.

Although, the government has been making a number of strides recently to curb the runaway inflation.

For example, on January 17, the Central Bank of Iran officially launched an Open Market Operation (OMO) system as part of its monetary policy to curb inflation as well as control interest rates in the interbank market and manage liquidity.

According to CBI Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, the main purpose of open market operations is to control liquidity and inflation in the market.

“Typically, central banks conduct open market operations or buy and sell securities to achieve their macroeconomic goals, namely inflation control and economic growth stability”, the official said.

MA/MA