Inflation in Turkey slowed in February for the fourth consecutive month, to 55.2% year-on-year from 57.7% in January, official data showed on Friday.
This fall, which occurs with the proximity of the presidential and legislative elections scheduled for May 14, is explained by a “base effect”, since prices have continued to rise month by month, but with less intensity than a year before. . In one month, consumer prices increased by 3.15%.
Inflation, driven in particular by the weakness of the Turkish lira, had reached 85.5% in twelve months in October, a level not seen since June 1998, before slowing in November for the first time in eighteen months.
The official figures are, however, questioned by independent economists from the Inflation Study Group (Enag), according to which the rise in consumer prices accelerated again in February, up to 126.9% in twelve months, compared to the 121.6% in January.
The Turkish economy, already going through a period of turbulence, must now bear the consequences of the devastating earthquake on February 6, which killed more than 45,000 people in the south of the country.
The quake and its aftershocks caused more than $34 billion worth of damage, or 4% of Turkey’s GDP, the World Bank estimated on Monday.
Source: BFM TV
