ANKARA: Turkey’s annual inflation rate rose to a three-month high in March amid soaring food prices and a weakening currency, diminishing hopes for central bank interest-rate cuts to stoke sagging economic growth.
The consumer-price index rose to 7.61% in March from 7.55% in February, the state-statistics agency said Friday, despite government expectations of a slowdown and a forecast that it would drop to 7.3% in a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal.
With last year’s drought still weighing on food prices–which jumped 14% in March–and knock-on effects from the lira’s 11% drop against the dollar since the start of the year, Turkey once again risks missing its 5% inflation target in 2015.
