Iran has reported a further decline in the official inflation rate amid efforts to boost an economy affected by a series of American sanctions.
The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) said on Monday that consumer inflation rate calculated on a point-to-point basis for the Persian calendar month ending on September 22, 2019, had declined to stand at 35 percent, down from 41.6 percent recorded in the previous month.
The falling trend in Iran’s point-to-point inflation rate has been seen as a sign that the economy is on the path to recovery after more than a year of losses caused by Washington’s withdrawal from a major international agreement on the country’s nuclear program.
The SCI said last month that point-to-point inflation rate for the month ending August 22 had been lower than the official year-on-year rate of 42.2 percent, a first in 16 months.
The government body had predicted that the declining trend would continue in the next months.
It said on Monday, as reported by the official IRNA news agency, that the annual inflation rate for the period ending September 22, 2019 was 42.7 percent, up half a percentage point from the previous yearly figure recorded in late August.
The declining rates came as Iran's national currency rial also rose against foreign currencies.
The rial was trading at 114,500 against the US dollar late on Monday, less than half a percent up from figures reported over the weekend.
Rial’s rebound and lower inflation rate comes despite a series of new sanctions imposed by the United States last week, which targeted the country’s central bank and its sovereign wealth fund and sought to heap more pressure on Iran over allegations that the country had been behind attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in the middle of September.