Iran's April inflation stands at 10.3 pct yr/yr - cbank

Iran's inflation rate eased in April to 10.3 per cent year-on-year, from 10.4 per cent the previous month, central bank figures showed on Monday.

The official yearly rate in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter stood at a peak of nearly 30 per cent last year. The inflation rate in the month of Farvardin (ended on April 20) reached 10.4 per cent compared to the previous month.

Easing inflationary pressures could help President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, re-elected for a second four-year term in June in a disputed vote, to counter criticisms over enforcing a subsidy reform plan that might stoke price rises and hurt the poor.

In March parliament passed a state budget for the Iranian year, which started on March 21, that did not contain the radical reductions in subsidies sought by Ahmadinejad. Under the plan, food and energy subsidies would be phased out over five years.

Removing subsidies could make Iran less vulnerable to any possible Western sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme, but critics of the plan fear it would raise inflation.

Critics have accuse Ahmadinejad of stoking inflation with profligate spending of petrodollars since 2005, when he first came to office, pledging to share out Iran's oil wealth more fairly.

The government blames inflation on international energy and food price rises that peaked during 2008 and points to a falling trend since late last year.

Economists say the inflation decline is due to various reasons such as a slowing economy as a result of lower crude prices over the last year and the global economic downturn, and also monetary tightening by the central bank.