Turkish inflation nears 20% on rising food, energy costs
While Turkey’s latest official inflation figures beat expectations, raising some concerns over data integrity, consumer prices are expected to keep rising amid growing global energy costs.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s annual consumer inflation rate rose to 19.89% in October, according to official data published Wednesday by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Up from 19.58% in September, the figure marks Turkey’s highest inflation rate in 2.5 years, driven primarily by rising costs in food, housing, services and transportation, as well as a spike in global energy prices.
The Turkish lira fell 1% against the US dollar on inflation news Wednesday, trading at 9.70 per greenback at 5 p.m. Istanbul time.
While October inflation rose less than the annual 20.35% forecasted in a Bloomberg survey this week, the wide gap between consumer price inflation and the nation’s Producer Price Index, which increased to 46.31% last month according to TurkStat data, drew concerns over the integrity of official figures.
