Turkiye’s inflation hits a 24-year high after further interest rate cuts. Turkish annual inflation climbed to a new high of 85.51% in October, official data showed on Thursday, slightly below forecast, after the central bank cut its policy rate despite surging prices.
Inflation has surged since last year when the lira slumped after the central bank began cutting its policy rate in an easing cycle long sought by President Tayyip Erdogan.
In the last three months, the central bank slashed its policy rate by a total of 350 basis points to 10.5%. It promised another cut this month as the final move in the current easing cycle, running counter to the global monetary policy tightening trend.
The consumer prices rose 3.54%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, below the 3.60% forecast in a Reuters poll. Annually, consumer price inflation (TRCPIY=ECI) was forecast to be 85.60%.
Turkiye’s inflation hits a 24-year high after further interest rate cuts. The annual inflation in October was the highest since June 1998, when Turkey was working to end a decade of high inflation.
Haluk Burumcekci, the founder of Burumcekci Consulting, said the October print could be the peak for headline inflation if the lira does not weaken further.
“We think that the headline inflation may have seen its peak unless there is a depreciation from the lira’s current level,” he said. “A significant decline (in inflation) could only happen towards the 70-75% range due to the base effect in the last month of the year.”
The lira’s 44% decline last year and 29% this year was the main reason behind soaring inflation, in addition to surging energy prices.
Clothing led the price rises with 8.34%, followed by food prices, which rose 5.09%, and furnishing and household equipment prices, which rose 4.38%.
However, Turkish officials reject criticism that rampant price increases are a result of monetary policy errors, instead blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for a global rally in commodities including energy and food. Yet even when the impact from such volatile items is excluded, annual Turkish inflation stood at 68.1% last month.
The experimental policies have already pushed inflation above 100% in parts of the country.
