Tehran Times Economic Desk

@T= TEHRAN -- Inflation in Iran in its last calendar month of Khordad (May 22-June 21) reached 15.4 percent, ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting Subsidies Reform Organization Chief Behrouz Moradi as saying.
""According to statistics from the Central Bank of Iran, the inflation rate in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar was 13.2%, 14.2 % and 15.4%, respectively”, Moradi added.
He emphasized that the growth of inflation is naturally occurred every year and the recent increase in the inflation is not just the outcome of implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan.
Some economists say prices could soar as a result of the government removing subsidies on essentials such as food and fuel, although the government has achieved somehow to combat the high inflationary pressures of removing the subsidies.
The first phase of the Subsidy Reform Plan began in December 2010 and eliminated $20 billion of subsidies on food, gasoline, electricity and natural gas.