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ISTANBUL, June 3 (Reuters) – Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to a 24-year high of 73.5% in May, fueled by the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and a tumbling lira – though the figure was slightly lower than economists had feared.<\/p>\n
Inflation has surged since last autumn, when the lira slumped after the central bank launched a 500 basis-point easing cycle sought by President Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n
The latest figure surpassed the 73.2% touched in 2002 and is the highest since October 1998, when annual inflation was 76.6% and Turkey was battling to end a decade of chronically high inflation. Nevertheless, the consensus forecast was for annual inflation to rise to 76.55%.<\/p>\n
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Month-on-month consumer prices rose 2.98%, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) said on Friday, compared to a Reuters poll forecast of 4.8%.<\/p>\n
Transport and food costs have soared by 108% and 92% respectively over the last year, reflecting a deepening economic crisis for Turks struggling to afford basic goods. The domestic producer price index climbed 8.76% month-on-month in May for an annual rise of 132.16%.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Reuters Graphics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSINGLE DIGITS?<\/p>\n
The lira weakened 0.25% to 16.5050 against the dollar touching its weakest since December. The local currency tumbled 44% in 2021 and another 20% this year. read more <\/p>\n
Despite the highest annual rate in Erdogan’s two decades in power, Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said on Twitter monthly inflation readings are trending lower in a positive sign.<\/p>\n
Nebati has previously said inflation will fall to single digits in time for next year’s election under an economic program that prioritises low interest rates, high production and exports, and a current account surplus.<\/p>\n
However the trade deficit widened 157% year-on-year in May to $ 10.7 billion, mainly due to energy imports. The central bank forecasts single digit inflation by end-2024.<\/p>\n
Economists see inflation remaining high for the rest of 2022 and ending the year at 63%, based on a median estimate, up from 52% in last month’s poll.<\/p>\n
“It is not possible for Turkey, which has gone beyond the rules of the economic doctrine, to solve its key problem of high inflation with its current policies,” said economist Arda Tunca, a columnist at PolitikYol.<\/p>\n
DATA CREDIBILITY<\/h2>\n Opposition lawmakers and economists have questioned the reliability of TUIK’s figures, claims TUIK has dismissed. Polls show Turks believe inflation is far higher than official data.<\/p>\n
In a surprise, TUIK said it stopped publishing average prices of individual items in the inflation basket, which had been listed in a monthly table since 2003.<\/p>\n
The institute said it will publish an index table showing changes in item groups, as part of Eurostat compliance.<\/p>\n
“Establishing TUIK’s structure independent from government is as important as the central bank’s independence,” said Mahfi Egilmez, another Turkey-based economist said on Twitter. “Accurate and reliable data production is the first and foremost prerequisite to implementing correct policies.”<\/p>\n
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Additional reporting by Halilcan Soran and Berna Suleymanoglu; Editing by Christina Fincher and Jonathan Spicer<\/span><\/p>\nOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People stroll at Mahmutpasa street, a middle-class shopping area, in Istanbul, Turkey May 6, 2022. REUTERS \/ Murad Sezer Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register ISTANBUL, June 3 (Reuters) – Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to a 24-year high of 73.5% in May, fueled by the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices …<\/p>\n
Turkish inflation soars to 73%, highest since 1998<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8],"tags":[73,70,66,16773,24,30,508,507,67,58,74,510,37,38,41,1822,46,1824,1821,75,1823,2031],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/resizer\/ndQYSplKUBCC4CBhlJyfzyUpNIM=\/1200x628\/smart\/filters:quality(80)\/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com\/reuters\/NSPIX3NGUZOEZAQMQCY3PE4KMQ.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}