Inflation in Turkey hit 73.5 percent year on year in May, the highest since December 1998, driven by rising energy and food prices, official data showed on Friday.
The rise in consumer prices, however, slowed in May, compared to the increase observed in April, when inflation jumped from 61 to 70%.
The champions of soaring prices are transport (+107% year on year in May) and food products (+91%), driven up by the surge in energy and raw materials prices and by the collapse of the Turkish lira.
hotly debated topic
Rumors of military intervention in northern Syria have contributed for a week to further sink the national currency which quoted 16.49 Turkish liras per dollar on Friday morning, approaching the levels of December 2021. They had caused the State intervention to stabilize it once morest foreign currencies. The Turkish lira lost more than 47.79% of its value over one year.
Inflation is at the heart of the debates in Turkey, one year before the presidential election, scheduled for June 2023, the opposition and many economists accusing the National Statistics Office of knowingly and largely underestimating its magnitude.
Numbers questioned
Independent Turkish economists say inflation actually reached 160.76% year on year, double the official rate. Last week, the Turkish central bank refused to raise its key rate in an attempt to curb inflation and kept it at 14%.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who believes contrary to classic economic theories that high interest rates promote inflation, had forced the central bank at the end of 2021 to lower its key rate from 19% to 14% between September and December. This action had caused the collapse of the national currency.
ats / hkr
