<p dir="LTR"><span>Financial Tribune- The average Producer Price Index in the 12 months ending March 20, which marks the end of the final month of the last Iranian year (Esfand), increased by 5% compared with last year’s corresponding period, according to the latest report by the Central Bank of Iran.</span></p> <p dir="LTR"><span>CBI put the preceding month’s PPI inflation at 4.5%. A year-on-year increase of 9.1% was registered in the index compared with the similar month of last year. PPI (using Iranian year to March 2012) stood at 235.4 in Esfand, indicating a 0.7% growth compared with the previous month.</span></p> <p dir="LTR"><span>The importance of PPI lies in its predictive content for the future pattern of Consumer Price Index. Changes in PPI are usually reflected in CPI within a short period of time.</span></p> <p dir="LTR"><span>The central bank’s latest data on CPI show the goods and services CPI for urban areas in the 12 months to March 20 increased 9% compared with last year’s corresponding period.</span></p>