Financial Tribune - Iranian households living in urban areas spent an average of 393,227,000 rials ($3,389) in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19), 19.3% more than in the preceding year, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran shows.

�Food and tobacco� (94,505,000 rials or $814) accounted for 24% of total expenditures, whereas expenditure on non-food category stood at 298,772,000 rials or $2,575, accounting for 76% of total spending.

Meat accounted for 21% (the biggest share) of the overall urban households� expenditures in this category. Housing and fuel costs had the lion�s share in non-food category with 45%.

Urban households declared they received an average income of 434,905,000 rials ($3,749) last year, which shows an 18.6% rise compared with the previous year. This should be held against the backdrop of a 26.9% inflation rate reported by the Statistical Center of Iran.

The overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 164.3 in the final month of last Iranian year (Feb. 20-March 20, 2019), indicating a 3.9% rise compared with the previous month.