Turkey’s inflation rate remains in double digits in February

ANKARA

Turkey’s inflation rate failed to fall to single digits in February, as the year-on-year rate came in at 10.26 percent, down from 10.35 percent in the previous month, according to official data. 

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in February saw a change of 0.73 percent, higher than expectations, with food prices seeing a significant increase, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on March 5.

The highest monthly increase was 2.57 percent in health, while food and non-alcoholic beverages prices rose 2.24 percent, recreation and culture prices rose 1.89 percent, furnishing and household equipment rose 1.23 percent, and hotels, cafes and restaurants rose 0.95 percent.

The share of food prices in the overall basket was the highest with a 23.03 percent share, followed by transportation at 17.47 percent.

The only monthly decrease was 4.09 percent in clothing and footwear, according to TÜİK data.

The highest annual increase was 15.66 percent in furnishing and household equipment. Transportation with 13.19 percent, clothing and footwear with 11.77 percent, hotels, cafes and restaurants with 11.53 percent and education with 10.88 percent were the other main categories where high annual increases were realized.

Core inflation also remained high, recorded at 11.94 percent in February with a slight year-on-year decrease.

Another report from TÜİK showed that producer price inflation accelerated to 13.71 percent February from 12.14 percent in January. On a monthly basis, producer prices climbed by 2.68 percent.