The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) has released latest monthly data on consumer prices in the country, saying inflation rose to 36.4 percent in the final month of the last calendar year which ended on March 20.
The SCI figures showed that inflation rate had increased by 2.2 percent compared to the month to February 18.
The report said that point-to-point inflation had increased for the month to late March by 48.7 percent.
It said, however, that food prices had risen by 66.6 percent on the point-to-point scale, down slightly 0.2 percent against the previous month’s comparison.
Point-to-point inflation for all goods was higher for households living in rural regions at 53.3 percent, down 0.3 percent against the month to February 18, said the SCI.
Monthly inflation, which compares prices in two successive months regardless of the annual index, rose by 1.8 percent in the month to late March. Monthly growth in consumer prices had been higher at the end of the month to late February at 1.15 percent.
High rates of inflation in Iran comes as the country has been grappling with one of the largest outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East.
The government has introduced several rounds of closures for businesses and manufacturing units across the country to curb the spread of the disease.
That comes as the country is still under a series of harsh American sanctions that have mainly targeted the country’s energy and banking sectors.