The Status of the Inflation Index in Iran
Official international statistics indicate that in 2022, Iran has been ranked as the eighth country in the world with the highest recorded inflation index. Moreover, the inflation index in the country has more than doubled in less than two decades.
Research shows that this figure reached 57 for Iran in the past calendar year, which is the highest recorded inflation rate in the country in the past three decades. In 2022, only Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey, Argentina, and Suriname have higher inflation rates than Iran.
However, this is not the first time that Iran has been ranked high on the global inflation index table. Analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank shows that in the past twenty years, Iran has been ranked among the top twelve countries with the highest inflation rates for 14 years.
Inflation: The Worst Possible Situation
The inflation index is the sum of the forced combination of the inflation rate and unemployment rate, which has been used in the literature of political economy since the mid-1970s as a tool to measure economic crises in countries.
As shown in the graph below, the unemployment rate has remained relatively unchanged over the past two decades. However, severe inflationary fluctuations have led Iran to spend the past 15 years in the most unfortunate situation possible.
The Misery Index is also one of the most common indicators of economic hardship. It was first introduced by American economist Arthur Melvin Okun and quickly gained attention from policymakers, including Jimmy Carter, who frequently referred to this index during the 1976 US presidential campaign and eventually became President of the United States.
In Iran, during the 2009 presidential election campaign, Mohsen Rezaei mentioned the Misery Index in a televised debate with his electoral rival and then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which brought this economic indicator into the public discourse.
Currently, the Misery Index in the country has more than doubled compared to the year 2009.
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