BY SEBNEM TURHAN
The annual inflation rate jumped to 48.69% while consumer prices rose by 11.1% as a result of the price hike in critical sectors, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Annual inflation hit a 20-year high in January, seeing its highest level since 2002. The Domestic Producer Price Index (D-PPI) increased monthly by 10.45% to 93.5% on annual basis in January due to cost pressures stemming from increasing raw material, electricity, and natural gas prices. The difference between the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and D-PPI reached 45.0 points in January. Annual inflation will exceed 50% in February and its peak will surpass 60%, according to the market forecasts. Price hikes in energy (electricity by 69.97%), transportation (inter-urban city bus fare by 24.41%, subway fare by 32.12%, highway tolls by 25.26%, and taxi fare by 24.69%), water and food products (eggplant by 54.74%, paper products by 54.27%, cucumbers by 45.81%, zucchini by 41.99%, tangerines by 24.40%, tomatoes by 32.94%) at the beginning of January raised the CPI. Alcoholic beverages were also among the groups with the highest price surge. Although the monthly doubledigit CPI and the doubled D-PPI have stabilized in recent weeks, the foreign exchange rate transitivity continued to affect inflation. The negative interest rate provided by Turkey rose to 34.69%, the highest among developing countries.
