Iraq’s Central Bank announces a decline in the inflation rate in 2023
The Central Bank of Iraq. Photo: INA
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) announced on Thursday that inflation rates in Iraq declined to 3.7 percent in 2023.
The CBI mentioned in a statement that the inflation rate declined from 4.4 percent in August 2022 to 3.7 percent in August 2023, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The CBI explained that inflation rates in Iraq are acceptable compared to some countries in the region, such as Iran, where the inflation reached 46 percent, and Turkey, where the inflation is 57 percent.
The inflation rate in the United Arab Emirates reached 3.4 percent and 2.4 percent in Saudi Arabia, INA added.
The Iraqi Ministry of Planning announced last month that the inflation rate remained stable during September.
The spokesperson of the Planning Ministry, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, said earlier that the monthly inflation rate in Iraq during September witnessed no changes compared to August, where the inflation rate rose by 0.5 percent.
Al-Hindawi added that the annual inflation rate during September witnessed an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the same month in 2022.
The Central Statistical Organization (CSO) of the Iraqi Planning Ministry recorded an increase of four percent in the annual inflation rate in April 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
In its latest report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected that the annual inflation in Iraq would rise to 6.6 percent in 2023.
The IMF explained in its report that the annual inflation in Iraq during 2020 reached 0.6 percent and rose to six percent in 2021.
Expectations also indicated that the annual inflation rate in Iraq will decrease in 2024 to 1.6 percent.