Ice-cream and fruit juice prices have increased by 25% as of May 22.
“The prices of milk and sugar have experienced a nearly twofold increase. Yet, we could not double the prices because then people could not afford to buy ice-cream or fruit juice at all,” the head of Ice-Cream and Fruit Juice Union, Eskandar Azmoudeh, was quoted as saying by ILNA.
The official noted that since ice-cream and fruit juice are not considered essential commodities like bread and rice or vegetable oil, many Iranian households are expected to remove them from their expenditure basket.
The two products last saw a price rise of 20% at the start of the current Iranian year (March 21).
“Some business owners have already been forced to lay off workers because there are fewer customers now, and therefore, less work to do. We are worried that more workers will follow suit, as a result of the new round of price increase,” Azmoudeh said.
Latest data released by the Statistical Center of Iran show that the Consumer Price Index of “food and beverages” stood at 569.3 in the month ending April 20, indicating a 4.7% increase compared with the previous month, the highest monthly rise among 12 groups of goods and services surveyed by SCI.
The average CPI of “food and beverages” in the 12-month period ending April 20 increased by 50.8% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
The index registered a year-on-year increase of 43.4%.
The "food and beverages" group has a coefficient of 26.64% in CPI.
The overall goods and services CPI in the 12-month period ending April 20 increased by 39.2% compared with the corresponding period of the year before.
The consumer inflation for the month under review (March 21-April 20) registered an increase of 35.6% compared with the similar month of the previous Iranian year.
The overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 415 for the month ending April 20, indicating a 3.3% rise compared with the month before.
SCI put average inflation for urban and rural areas at 38.7% and 41.6%, respectively.
CPI registered a year-on-year increase of 35.2% for urban areas and 37.2% for rural areas.
The overall CPI reached 409.4 for urban households and 446.5 for rural households, indicating a month-on-month increase of 3.2% and 4%, respectively.
