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Turkey’s consumer inflation surged by a staggering 13.6 percent in December, bringing the 2021 annual rate to 36 percent — the highest under the 19-year rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The record rate, announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Monday, comes as a fresh blow to Erdogan’s economic credentials. Since September, the bank has cut its policy rate by 500 basis points in four months, instead of raising the rate to rein in prices, as conventional economics dictates. Erdogan insists on the unorthodox view that high interest rates cause high inflation.
