A money changer holds Turkish lira and US dollar banknotes at a money exchange office in Ankara, Turkey, December 16, 2021.
Kagura Guldgan | Reuters
Turkey’s annual inflation rate rose to 68.5% in March, a further increase from February’s inflation rate of 67.1%, it said. A report released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Wednesday.
The monthly growth rate of consumer prices was 3.16%, led by education, communications, hotels, restaurants, and cafes, which increased by 13%, 5.6%, and 3.9% from the previous month, respectively.
On an annual basis, education once again had the highest cost inflation at 104% year-on-year, followed by hotels, restaurants and cafes at 95%, and healthcare at 80%.
Turkey has launched a concerted effort to combat rising inflation with interest rate hikes, most recently raising its key policy rate from 45% to 50% in late March.
Much of the inflation in recent months has been due to significant inflation. raise to minimum wage The annual minimum wage rose to 17,002 Turkish liras (about $530) per month in January, a 100% increase from the same period last year.
Economists expect the central bank to need to raise rates further.
March’s inflation rate was “the slowest monthly increase in three months, suggesting that the effects of January’s large minimum wage hike may have mostly passed, but policymakers are aiming to “We are still a long way from achieving single-digit inflation rates,” Nicholas Farr, emerging Europe economist at London-based Capital Economics, said in an analyst note on Wednesday.
“The latest inflation numbers do little to change our view that more monetary tightening is ahead and that a more concerted effort to tighten fiscal policy is also needed,” he said.
