Turkey’s core inflation hits 13.5-year high in September

ANKARA

Turkey’s core inflation, which excludes energy, food and other volatile prices, rose to 10.98 percent year-on-year in September, the highest level since February 2004, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on Oct. 3.

The TÜİK data showed that headline inflation rose 11.2 percent, its third-highest level this year.

On a monthly basis, the headline figure rose 0.65 percent.

While the highest monthly increase was 2.08 percent in education, the highest annual increase was seen in transport with 16.1 percent, in food and non-alcoholic beverages with 12.5 percent, and in miscellaneous goods and services with 12.06 percent.

Producer prices rose 0.24 percent month-on-month for a year-on-year rise of 16.28 percent, the data also showed.

After falling below 10 percent in July, annual headline inflation in Turkey picked up to reach 10.68 percent in August, mainly due to large price rises again in education and transportation. Consumer price inflation hit an 8.5-year peak of 11.87 percent in April.

İş Investment Economist Muammer Kömürcüoğlu said the double-digit headline and core inflation rates had pushed the Central Bank to adopt a monetary tightening stance.

“In this vein, we don’t expect any ease in the Central Bank policy in the next two meetings this year. We keep our inflation forecast at 9.4 percent. It should also be stated that the annual inflation would likely remain to be at double-digits in October and November,”

Kömürcüoğlu said, as quoted by Reuters just after the release of the inflation data.