In a speech Feb. 23, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani touted his administration’s economic achievements. Soon after, both economists and his political rivals questioned his assertions as well as his methods of deriving the extraordinary numbers.

“Last year we brought down inflation for Bahman (January-February) and Esfand (February-March). No one could have predicted that inflation would be zero for Bahman and yesterday the Center for Statistics announced this figure [of zero],” Rouhani said, adding that there was an increase of of 25% in non-oil exports.

The announcement of zero inflation raised eyebrows in Iranian media. Inflation — about 40% at the end of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency — has been one of Iranian voters' biggest concerns, and although Rouhani has considerably lowered inflation through subsidy reforms and other policies, zero inflation was seen as an exaggerated reduction.

Mehr News Agency took the president to task, writing that “with reviewing the statistics of the Central Bank and the Center for Statistics of Iran, it comes to mind that again that the economic officials of the country are playing with the economic statistics of the country.”