SCI’s Overdue Inflation Report Out

After weeks of delay, the Statistical Center of Iran has finally published data on inflation in the last fiscal year (March 2022-23).
The new report, published simultaneously with inflation statistics of the first fiscal month, puts last year’s rate at 45.8%, with that of rural areas standing at 50.6% and urban areas at 45%.
The new data, presented in a different format from previous such reports, have revised down the monthly inflation rates from previous rounds, while the coefficients for the 12 categories of surveyed goods and services have also changed.
“The official explanation [for the delay] is that SCI was in the process of changing the base year for CPI from 1395 [fiscal 2016-17] to 1400 [fiscal 2021-22]. Five-year updates are normal and necessary because the expenditure weights used to calculate CPI change over time,” said economist Djavad Salehi Isfahani on his weblog recently.