UPDATES WITH BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MONTHLY FIGURES
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Consumer prices in Turkey rose by 25.24 percent year-on-year in October, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Monday.
The annual inflation increased by 0.72 percentage points from 24.52 percent in September.
On a yearly basis, the biggest price hike of 37.92 percent was in furnishing and household equipment in October.
“Transportation with 32 percent, miscellaneous goods and services with 31.5 percent, food and non-alcoholic beverages with 29.26 percent and housing with 25.72 percent were the other main groups where high annual increases realized, ” TurkStat said.
Last month, Treasury and Finance Ministry launched an “all-out war ” on inflation with a set of measures to limit the extreme increases in consumer prices.
Over the past five years, the annual inflation saw its lowest level at 6.13 percent in April 2013, while the figure reached its highest level this October.
As noted in Turkey's new economy program announced in September, the country's inflation rate target is 20.8 percent this year, 15.9 percent next year, 9.8 percent in 2020, and 6.0 percent in 2021.
Last week, the Turkish Central Bank revised Turkey's year-end inflation rate forecast to 23.5 percent.
On a monthly basis, the consumer prices rose by 2.67 percent in October, with the highest monthly increase at 12.74 percent in clothing and footwear.
TurkStat noted that the only monthly decrease in consumer prices was recorded in transportation with a 0.85-percent down.
Children's coat, women's pullover and men's anorak jacket were the top three items with the biggest price hikes last month while the price of lemon, cucumber and banana saw the biggest drop.
“In October 2018 within average prices of 407 items in the index, average prices of 42 items remained unchanged while average prices of 328 items increased and average prices of 37 items decreased, ” TurkStat said.
