Iran inflation drops to 7.6 pct yr/yr in Oct- c.bank

TEHRAN, Nov 9 - Iran's inflation rate continued a downward trend in October to stand at 7.6 percent year-on-year, the central bank said in a statement on Monday.

The official annual rate in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter slid from 9.3 percent in September and has fallen from a peak of nearly 30 percent late last year.

Easing inflationary pressures could help President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to counter critics who say the government's subsidy reform plan would stoke price rises and hurt the poor.

Iran's parliament has approved a plan that would gradually cut subsidies on food and energy by 2015.

The annual rate in the Iranian month of Mehr, which ended on Oct. 22, declined even though consumer prices rose 0.1 percent from the previous month, according to the central bank's website.

The bank said the average inflation rate during the 12 months ending to Mehr compared with the same period last year was 16.7 percent.

Critics have accused Ahmadinejad of stoking inflation with reckless spending of petrodollars since he first came to power in 2005 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.