ANKARA: Turkey’s consumer price inflation accelerated more than estimated in April as food prices rose.
The annual rate of inflation rose to 7.91 percent from 7.61 percent in the previous month, Turkey’s statistics bureau said in a statement on its website. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 18 economists was 7.65 percent. Food prices increased at an annual rate of 14.36 percent.
Turkey’s central bank Governor Erdem Basci on April 30 raised his year-end inflation forecast to 6.8 percent from 5.5 percent, citing a weak lira and higher-than-expected oil prices. He said the worsening inflation outlook still didn’t merit tighter monetary policy.
Basci will probably continue to support the lira with supplementary measures without changing the bank’s benchmark repo rate in the short-term, Odeabank AS chief economist Inanc Sozer said by phone.
“The figures show a clear impact from the weakening of the lira in April and high food prices,” Sozer said. “Now we’re worried about the inflation in May too.”
The lira weakened after the data and was trading 0.4 percent lower at 2.7186 per dollar at 10:02 a.m. in Istanbul, extending the year’s losses to 14.1 percent to become the worst performer among 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
