Central Bank: PPI Inflation at 4.5%

The average Producer Price Index in the 12-month period ending February 18, which marks the end of the Iranian month of Bahman, reached 4.5% compared with last year’s corresponding period, according to the latest report of the Central Bank of Iran.  The CBI put the preceding month’s PPI inflation at 4%.  A year-on-year increase of 8.9% was registered in the index compared with the similar month of last year. PPI (using Iranian year to March 2012) stood at 233.8 in Bahman, indicating a 0.2% increase compared with the previous month. The importance of PPI lies in its predictive content for the future pattern of Consumer Price Index. Changes in PPI are usually reflected in CPI within a short period of time. The central bank’s latest data show the goods and services CPI for urban areas in the 12 months to February 18 reached 8.7% year-on-year.