Iran inflation rises to 8.9pct in February

Iran's annual inflation rate rose for a second month in February, the Central Bank said on Wednesday, in a halt of a downward trend which had brought the rate down from nearly 30 percent in just over a year. The year-on-year rate stood at 8.9 per cent in the Iranian month of Bahman, which ends on February 19, the bank said on its website. It did not give a comparison, but the bank last month said the rate was 7.8 per cent in January, which in turn was a rise from 7.4 per cent in December. The official annual rate in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter has fallen from a peak of nearly 30 per cent in late 2008. The government of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election last year sparked widespread street protests, says the plan will help boost the economy and that those in need will receive cash payments in compensation. During his first four-year term and before the inflation rate started falling, political opponents accused Ahmadinejad of fuelling inflation with profligate spending of petrodollars. Ahmadinejad blamed inflation on international energy and food price rises that peaked during 2008.