Turkey’s inflation eases for third month to 57.68%

Ankara: Turkey’s annual inflation eased for the third month in a row, recording a 57.68-percent growth in January, official data showed.

Meanwhile, consumer prices registered a month-on-month growth of 6.65 percent in January, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Inflation in Turkey hit almost 85.5 percent, a 24-year high, in October 2022 after rising for 17 months. The high inflation leads to a sharp decline in Turkish households’ purchasing power despite the government’s anti-inflation measures and salary increases.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports low-interest rates in the hope of boosting economic growth and employment. He recently signaled a further decrease in the central bank’s interest rates in the future.

“We will lower the key interest rate even more from 9 percent,” Erdogan said on Wednesday.

The monetary policy has weakened the Turkish lira by more than 55 percent since September 2021 and fuelled a flight from the currency.

Erdogan, who is seeking another term in office in this year’s elections, has repeatedly defended his unconventional economic policies, promising that the country will “overcome” the inflation problem in 2023.