TEHRAN, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Iran's inflation topped 29 percent in the calendar month of Shahrivar that ended September 21, continuing an upward trend of the past few months, a central bank report said on Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) in urban areas increased by 29.4 percent compared to the same month a year earlier, the Mehr news agency quoted the bank as saying.

In August, price growth stood at 27.6 percent.

The worrisome trend showed that Iranians were again battered by rising prices of basic foodstuffs and goods.

The rise in food prices accelerated in Iran in September, when the cost of a Basketball of 45 staple items showed a mighty leap of nearly 50 percent year-on-year.

Ramin Pashai Fam, central bank deputy for economic affairs, said he hopes measures being taken by the central bank will mean inflation is around 20 percent at the end of the country's calendar year (March 20, 2009).

Growth in the country's money supply is responsible 'for 80 percent of inflation,' he said.

'If the money supply was controlled it is estimated the inflation rate would reach 16 percent,' Pashai Fam said.

'Some 17 percent of existing inflation in the country results from (increased) global prices and the rest is a consequence of domestic and external factors,' he added.

After annual inflation hit 26 percent in June, the central bank geared up to reassert its control of money supply -- a key indicator of future price trends.

However, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September replaced Tahmasb Mazaheri as head of the central bank in a bid to bring more harmony to his economic team around his expansionary policies.

Analysts say the government has already injected so much oil money into the economy that inflation will remain high for months and years to come despite the cenral bank's efforts to shrink the excessive volume of loans.