Iran’s Central Bank says the country’s annual inflation rate hit 24.9 percent in October compared to 24.0 the previous month.

The figure, reported by the official IRNA news agency Wednesday, was one of the highest inflation rates since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office seven years ago.

They add to a bleak economic picture which conservatives are pinning on Ahmadinejad, who they supported in his disputed 2009 re-election.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, lost about 50 percent of its foreign exchange value in less than a week in October, hitting an all-time low of 35,500 versus the dollar. It currently stands at about 32,000, and was close to 10,000 in early 2011.

The decline has been blamed on a combination of government mismanagement and sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program.

Source: The Associated Press