Shafaq News – Erbil

The Kurdistan Region registered an annual inflation rate of 2.2% in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest among Iraq’s provinces, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) announced on Saturday.

The data showed inflation at 2.9% in the southern provinces and 2.6% in the central provinces. In Kurdistan, the sharpest increases were in miscellaneous goods and services (17.2%), communications (6.3%), and transport (5.7%). Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 1.9%, household equipment by 1.2%, health by 0.6%, and education by 0.7%.

Food, which accounts for about a quarter of the inflation basket, rose by 1.9% in Kurdistan compared with 2.3% in the south and center. Housing, water, and electricity increased by 1.1% in Kurdistan, versus 3.2% in the south and 4.7% in the center, with the rise in the central provinces driven mainly by higher rents.