Turkish Consumer Price Inflation Slows To 57.68%

(RTTNews) - Turkey's consumer price inflation eased for a third month in a row in January, but remained strong, preliminary figures from the statistical office Turkstat showed Friday.

The consumer price index, or CPI, rose 57.68 percent year-on-year following a 64.27 percent increase in December. Economists had forecast 53.5 percent inflation. In the same month last year, inflation was 14.97 percent.

Headline inflation had peaked at 85.51 percent in October.

The biggest annual increase of 77.22 percent was in the health component. The smallest rise of 24.24 percent was logged in the clothing and footwear segment.

Core inflation, which excludes prices of fresh food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, was 56.64 percent in January.

Compared to the previous month, the CPI rose 6.65 percent in January. Economists had a forecast 3.80 percent increase. The core measure increased 6.13 percent.

Read more: Turkish Central Bank Unveils 2% Support For Firms Converting Forex From Abroad Into Liras

In the latest quarterly inflation report, released last week, the Turkish central bank projected food prices to rise 22 percent this year and 11.5 percent in 2024.

The central bank retained its inflation forecasts at 22.3 percent for this year and 8.8 percent at the end of 2024.

The CBRT Governor Sahap Kavcioglu said the underlying trend of inflation and the improvement in expectations, which is expected to continue, had a downward impact of 1.4 points on the forecasts for 2023.

The statistical office also reported that the domestic producer price index, or PPI, rose 86.46 percent annually in January after a 97.72 percent increase in December. A year ago, the rate was 26.16 percent.

Factory price inflation has been slowing in the past few months after hitting a peak in October.

On a month-on-month basis, the producer prices climbed 4.15 percent.

Producer prices in the mining sector surged 101.51 percent and those in the manufacturing sector climbed 70.49 percent. Prices in the energy sector soared 237.4 percent and those in the water supply industry grew 116.64 percent.