For years, Iran’s Central Bank has refrained from releasing inflation statistics, fearing that their publication might exacerbate inflationary pressures. However, contrary to this belief, the actual data indicates that withholding these statistics hasn’t curbed inflation rates.
This practice, which became commonplace during Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, persists under the current government’s leadership. Recently, the ‘Tasnim’ news agency shed light on what it termed a ‘statistical lockout’ orchestrated by Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the primary authority overseeing the housing sector. It revealed that the last report from the Housing Economics Office of the Ministry, dated November 2020, remains the latest available, with no updates in the past 36 months.
Describing this tactic as the cause of confusion among sector activists, Tasnim criticized the content of the latest report as ‘unreal’ and accused it of being manipulated for statistical purposes. Even accessing this ‘unreal’ report proves elusive, with its details shrouded in secrecy.
This statistical lockout serves as one of the regime’s methods to conceal its dismal performance, a trend that has escalated in recent years, purportedly for security reasons. The Governor General of the Central Bank indirectly acknowledged this security perspective, indicating the involvement of security institutions in deciding which economic statistics are deemed unsuitable for public disclosure due to restrictions and security concerns.
Echoing similar concerns, the state-run daily Donya-e Eghtesad, on April 21, 2023, highlighted the ramifications of this practice, suggesting it shields managers from accountability within their respective domains. It warned of the potential creation of a new protocol governing the publication of organizational statistics.
