Turkey inflation slows for first time since 2021

Turkey’s inflation slightly slowed in November for the first time since May 2021, official data showed on Monday.

The rate slowed to 84.39 percent, according to state statistics agency TUIK, down from 85.51 percent in October.

Turkey’s inflation has steadily risen since reaching a low of 16.6 percent in May 2021.

Independent economists, however, say the rate is more than twice as high.

According to a respected monthly study released by independent economists from Turkey’s ENAG research institute, the annual rate of consumer price increases reached 170.70 percent in November.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the weekend forecast that consumer prices rises would soon slow down.

“We will witness the rapid descent of inflation soon and we will see together that the dirty scenarios built on this trouble are torn and thrown away,” he said.

Erdogan’s government blames inflation on outside factors such as the global spike in food and energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.