TEHRAN, (AFP) — Iran’s year to March 2010 inflation fell to 10.8 percent, down by more than half from the previous year, the official IRNA news agency reported quoting the central bank.

IRNA said inflation in the previous year to March 2009 was 24.5 percent.

Inflation in the Islamic republic, OPEC’s second biggest oil exporter, has been its greatest economic challenge and had peaked in September 2008 to 29 percent.

Iranian economists blame President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for stoking inflation with his expansionary policies during his first four-year term.

They accuse Ahmadinejad, who was re-elected in June 2009, of directly fuelling price rises by ploughing huge amounts of cash into the economy for local infrastructure projects and by offering low-interest loans.