Türkiye's inflation rate slows sharply to 64.3%

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s annual inflation slowed sharply from 84.4 percent in November 2022 to 64.3 percent in December after peaking to 85.5 percent in October last year, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

The monthly increase in consumer prices also eased from 2.88 percent in November to 1.18 percent.

“We entered a period of marked decline in inflation since November and ended 2022 at a level below [the inflation] target in the Medium-Term Program,” Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said.

The government will continue to implement policies to fight inflation without causing unemployment and a slowdown in economic growth, the minister added.

“People will feel the more pronounced the impact of the policies implemented under the Türkiye Economy Model in the coming months. We protected our citizens’ purchasing power through measures we have taken and improvement in wages,” Nebati said.

In the latest edition of the Medium-Term Program, the government forecast that the annual inflation rate will decline from an estimated 65 percent at the end of 2022 to 24.9 percent next year and decline further to 13.8 percent in 2024.

Excluding the prices of food, energy, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products and gold, the consumer price index rose by 1.94 percent in December from the previous month and increased by 57.68 percent from December 2021, TÜİK said.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices advanced by 1.86 percent last month from November, which brought the annual increase to 77.87 percent.

Housing prices rose by 2.84 percent month-on-month for an annualized increase of 79.83 percent, according to the data from the statistics authority.

Health services prices exhibited an increase of 5.91 percent from November, marking the largest spike among all items on a monthly basis. The annual increase in health prices was 66.6 percent.

The monthly increase in tobacco products and alcoholic beverages prices was only 0.07 percent, while their prices rose by 65.1 percent annually.

Hotel and restaurant prices increased by 2.6 percent, while transport costs declined by 4.14 percent.

Clothing prices fell by 1.34 percent month-on-month, which brought the annual increase to 25.87 percent.

Last month, within indices of 144 basic headings in the index, the index of 24 basic headings decreased and the index of nine basic headings remained unchanged while the index of 111 basic headings increased, said TÜİK.

The domestic producer price index, which rose by 7.83 percent in October and 0.74 percent in November, declined by 0.24 percent in December.

The annual increase in producer prices slowed from 136 percent in November to 97.7 percent last month.