ANKARA: Turkey’s official inflation rate barely changed on Monday in a sign that a year-long crisis that has seen prices soar by 80 per cent may finally be starting to ease.
The TUIK state statistics agency said that consumer prices rose by 80.2pc in August from a year earlier. The figure was fractionally higher than the 79.6pc reported in July and only a small bump up from the 78.6pc reading in June. Turkey’s prices have been steadily rising since a low of 16.6pc in May 2021. The strategically important developing nation lurched into its latest economic crisis when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched an unorthodox experiment that attempted to fight inflation by lowering the main interest rate. Conventional economic theory embraced by almost every other big nation pursues the exact opposite approach. But Erdogan argues that higher interest rates contribute to price increases by making borrowing more expensive for businesses. –Agencies
