Maslak Financial and Commercial Center in Saliya District, Istanbul.
Alhan Alton | The Moment | Getty Images
Turkey’s annual consumer price inflation surged to 67.07% in February, the Turkish Statistics Institute said say monday,beyond expectation.
Analysts polled by Reuters last month expected annual inflation to climb to 65.7%.
According to the statistics agency, hotels, cafes and restaurants saw the largest annual increase in combined prices, reaching 94.78%, followed by education at 91.84%, health care at 81.25% and transportation at 77.98%.
In February, consumer prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 71.12% year-on-year, with an astonishing monthly increase of 8.25%.
The monthly change rate of the national inflation rate from January to February was 4.53%.
The strong data heightened concerns that Turkey’s central bank may have to re-implement tightening policies. Turkey’s central bank said last month that the painful eight-month interest rate hike cycle was over.
Liam said: “Turkey’s stronger-than-expected inflation rate in February, up 67.1% year-on-year, adds to our concerns as this comes against the backdrop of a sharp rise in January inflation and strong household spending growth in the fourth quarter. “Peach, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics in London, wrote in a research note on Monday.
“Core price pressures continue to intensify and if this persists, the likelihood of central banks restarting their tightening cycle will only increase in the coming months,” he said.
Some analysts predict that inflation will eventually fall to around 35% by the end of this year. Capital Economics said the latest data “underscores that inflationary pressures in the economy remain very strong and suggests that deflationary progress suffered a setback at the start of the year.”
