Turkey's official inflation rate jumps to 47.8% in July

Photo: AA/File

Turkey's official annual inflation rate surged by nearly 10 percentage points in July, reaching 47.83 percent.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the consumer price index showed a monthly increase of 9.49 percent, a 31.14 percent rise compared to the previous year's December, and a 57.45 percent increase based on the twelve-month average in July 2023.

In June, the inflation had risen by 3.92 percent monthly and 38.21 percent yearly. However, July witnessed the highest monthly inflation in 18 months, putting an end to the eight-month consecutive decrease in the annual inflation rate.

Economists had predicted a July inflation rate of 9.1 percent monthly and 47.3 percent yearly, according to the Reuters survey. In the AA survey, the expectations were 9.07 percent monthly and 47.27 percent yearly. The Central Bank had recently updated its year-end inflation expectation to 58 percent.

The Inflation Research Group (ENAG), an independent group of economists, calculated that consumer prices surged by 13.18 percent monthly and 122.88 percent yearly in July.

Food inflation

The İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) had announced that the city's inflation rate for July was 9.84 percent monthly and 63.76 percent yearly.

According to the Confederation of Turkish Labour Unions (Türk-İş), food inflation in July was 12.38 percent monthly and 70.44 percent yearly. It was 60.72 percent according to TurkStat data.

Soaring housing and fuel prices

TurkStat reported that the housing sector experienced the least increase at 19.31 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, while restaurants and hotels witnessed the highest increase of 82.62 percent in July 2023.

By major expenditure groups, education had the least increase at 2.67 percent compared to the previous month, whereas transportation saw the highest increase at 17.75 percent in July 2023, according to TurkStat.

Out of the 143 main items covered in the index, four experienced a decrease, four remained unchanged, and the index of 135 items increased in July 2023.

Excluding raw food products, energy, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and gold, the changes in the consumer price index were 8.92 percent monthly and 4.32 percent from the previous year's same month.

The main item that saw the highest price increase in July compared to the previous month was personal transportation vehicles' fuel and oils, with a rate of 29.04 percent. Vegetables came second with an 20.11 percent increase, followed by hotels with an 18.71 percent increase. (VK)