Turkey’s annual inflation rate slowed for a second month in December after hitting a two-decade high, official data showed Tuesday, helping President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chances in elections due by June.
Consumer prices rose by 64.3 percent in December from the levels at which they stood a year earlier, the state statics agency said, compared to an 84.4-percent year-on-year increase in November.
Analysts attribute the sharp slowdown to the so-called base effect, which makes year-on-year price increases look smaller when compared to extremely high levels 12 months earlier.
The latest reading is still higher than in any another other emerging market except for Argentina.
But it fulfils Erdogan’s campaign promise that inflation will start falling at the start of the year after reaching the highest levels since 1998 last year.
Turkey’s economy has been going through convulsions since Erdogan launched an unusual experiment in September 2021 that tried to fight inflation by bringing down borrowing costs.
The lira began to lose value almost immediately, as consumers rushed to buy up gold and dollars to protect their savings.
This report’s information was first seen on Zawya.com; to read more, click this link.
