Annual inflation rate at 83 percent in September

ANKARA

Türkiye’s annual inflation has accelerated from 80.2 percent in August to a fresh high of 83.45 percent in September, data from the Turkish Statistical Office (TÜİK) have shown.

Consumer prices, which increased 1.46 percent in August, advanced by 3.08 percent on a monthly basis in September.

Housing prices rose by 9.9 percent last month for an annualized increase of 84.67 percent, while education prices were up 6.99 percent month-on-month.

Communication costs increased by 3.4 percent monthly and 30.8 percent from September 2021.

The increase in restaurant and hotel prices was 2.43 percent, and food and non-alcoholic drinks prices were up 1.97 percent, which brought the annual rise for food to 93 percent.

Clothing prices rose by 1.46 percent from August and increased by 40.3 percent compared with September last year, data also showed.

Excluding food, energy, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and gold prices, the increases in the consumer price index (CPI) was 2.74 percent month-on-month and 74.73 percent from a year ago, TÜİK said.

In its inflation report in July, the Central Bank raised its end-2022 forecast to 60.4 percent from 42.8 percent previously.

The disinflation process is expected to start on the back of measures taken and decisively implemented for strengthening sustainable price and financial stability along with the resolution of the ongoing regional conflict, the bank said in a statement released last month after the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting.

“Increase in inflation is driven by the lagged and indirect effects of rising energy costs, effects of pricing formations that are not supported by economic fundamentals, strong negative supply shocks caused by the rise in global energy, and food and agricultural commodity prices,” said the bank after delivering a 100 basis points cut in its the policy rate, one-week repo auction rate, from 13 percent to 12 percent.

In its latest Medium-Term Program, the government forecasts that inflation will ease to 24.9 percent at the end of 2023 and drop further to 13.8 percent in 2024, coming down to 9.9 percent at the end of 2025.

Domestic producer prices rose by 4.78 percent in September, after rising 2.4 percent month-on-month in August. This brought the annual increase in the domestic producer price index from 143.7 percent in August to 151.5 percent last month.