Surging Inflation Linked to Rise in E-Transactions  

The nationwide e-payment settlement network, Shaparak, processed an estimated 38.85 billion payments worth 71,274 trillion rials ($236.8 billion) in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
This was up 17.15% in volume and 33.05% higher in value on the previous year, Shaparak company said in its annual report.  
Comparison of the performance of e-payments in recent years shows that the pattern of growth was natural because such payments are easy to make and preferred by the majority of the population. 
Increase in value of payments was apparently due to the high and rising inflation across the board, in particular consumer prices. Shaparak publishes data in real terms adjusted for inflation. Accordingly, the real value of transactions plunged 5.09% y/y.