Turkey: Inflation slips to 8.55% in October

ISTANBUL

Turkey saw an annual rise of 8.55% in consumer prices in October, official figures showed on Monday.

Annual inflation fell 0.71 percentage points in October, down from 9.26% in September, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

TurkStat said the highest annual price rise last month was seen in alcoholic beverages and tobacco with 43.60%.

"Health care with 14.24%, education with 14.20%, hotels, cafes and restaurants with 13.71%, and miscellaneous goods and services with 13.43% were the other main groups where high annual increases were realized," it said.

Last week, an Anadolu Agency survey indicated that a group of 14 economists had expected an average annual climb of 8.41% in consumer prices in October.

Economists also forecast that Turkey's year-end annual inflation would be 12.11% on average -- the lowest estimate at 11.5% and the highest at 12.8%.

In October, consumer prices rose 2% month-on-month, official figures showed.

The highest monthly increases were seen in clothing and footwear with 11.7%, followed by housing (3.55%), non-alcoholic beverages (1.65%), communication (1.43%), and transportation (1.17%).

"In October 2019 with average prices of 418 items in the index, the average prices of 33 items remained unchanged while the average prices of 289 items increased and the average prices of 96 items decreased," the institute said.

The official data also said this October the 12-month average hike in consumer prices was 16.81%.

Turkey’s Central Bank last week lowered the country's year-end inflation forecast from 13.9% to 12%.

Under Turkey's new economic program announced by the government at the end of September, the country's inflation rate target is 12% this year, 8.5% next year, and 6.0% in 2021.

Over the last decade, annual inflation saw its lowest level at 3.99% in March 2011, while it peaked at 25.24% in October 2018.