Turkey's annual inflation fell to 64.27% in Dec 2022 due to base effect

Turkey's annual inflation fell sharply to 64.27 per cent in December 2022 due to a base effect, official data has revealed.

The decline was in line with expectations and owed largely to the statistical effect of the high base in the same month of 2021, reports Xinhua news agency citing the the Turkish Statistical Institute as saying.

Consumer prices increased by 1.18 percent in December from the previous month, according to the Institute.

In the last report of the Turkish central bank, the year-end inflation expectation was 65.2 per cent.

The annual producer price index, which was 136 per cent in November, downed to 97.72 per cent in December.

Inflation in Turkey hit nearly 85.5 per cent, a 24-year high, in October 2022 after rising for 17 months, and dropped slightly in November to 84.39.

Turkish households have seen a sharp decline in their purchasing power despite government anti-inflation measures and salary increases.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports low-interest rates in the hope of boosting economic growth and employment.

The monetary policy has weakened the Turkish lira by more than 50 per cent since September 2021 and fueled 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 the new year.

--IANS

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