Tyranny of numbers

The inflation report for the Iranian month of Ordibehesht (21 April to 20 May) showed a significant rise in prices: 8.5 percent according to the Central Bank and 8.8 percent according to the Statistical Center of Iran. As the figure showing three-month averages indicates, these are record monthly inflation rates, equivalent to annual rates in excess of 150 percent. More importantly, they interrupt a three-month decline in inflation (at least according to the SCI data), which had raised hopes that the cost-push inflation resulting from last fall’s removal of foreign-exchange subsidies for food and medicine had largely been absorbed.