TEHRAN – Iran’s Producer Price Index (PPI) data for the Q4 of the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) indicates that the index has improved 10.6 percent compared to the Q3, IRIB reported on Wednesday.

According to the data released by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), the point-to-point inflation of the country’s producer price index for the past year’s Q4 reached 15.0 percent, which is 10.6 percent lower than the previous season.

As reported, the highest inflation rate was reported to be related to the mining sector (33.3 percent), while the lowest inflation rate was reported for the electricity sector (7.1 percent).

Back in February, SCI reported that Iran’s industrial producer inflation dropped to -2.3 percent in last autumn (September 23-December 21, 2019) for the first time in four years.

The point-to-point inflation in the mentioned sector reached 27 percent, to register a 33.6 percent decrease compared to the figure for the last year’s same season, the report said.

Based on the SCI data, among the various industrial sectors, the lowest seasonal inflation was attributed to the "coal industry and oil refineries" (-10.7 percent), followed by "paper and paper products" (-4.6 percent), and the petrochemicals (-2 percent).

The highest inflation rates were reported to be related to “office and computing appliances” (26.6 percent), “garment production, processing, and dying” (9.5 percent) and "transportation equipment production" (7.8 percent).

Later in March, SCI announced that the inflation rate in the country is expected to experience a downward trend in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20).

The SCI estimated the annual and point-to-point inflation rates using three different scenarios, all of which forecast the future inflation rates using the data from the previous similar time spans and comparing them to the present situation.

EF/MA