Turkey's inflation jumps to 20-year high of 61% on Ukraine conflict
The Hindu
Month-on-month, consumer prices rose 5.46%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, compared to a Reuters poll forecast of 5.7%
Turkey's annual inflation leapt to a fresh 20-year high of 61.14% in March, data showed on April 4, fuelled by rising energy and commodity prices driven by the Russia-Ukraine conflict which compounded the impact of a lira crash late last year.
Inflation has been surging since last autumn as the lira weakened after the central bank in September launched a 500 basis point-easing cycle, which had long been sought by President Tayyip Erdogan.
Month-on-month, consumer prices rose 5.46%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, compared to a Reuters poll forecast of 5.7%. Annually, consumer price inflation was forecast to be 61.5%.
The producer price index climbed 9.19% month-on-month in March for an annual rise of 114.97%. The monthly rise in March was driven by transportation, which includes petrol prices and education groups, which rose 13.29% and 6.55% respectively.
Annually, the transportation group led the rise with 99.12%, followed by food and non-alcoholic drink prices at 70.33% and furniture prices at 69.26%.
Economists marked up global consumer price inflation expectations following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with energy prices hitting multi-year highs as the West sanctioned Moscow. Turkey imports almost all of its energy needs.