ANKARA: Turkish inflation rose slightly less than expected in February but remained significantly above the Central Bank’s target, limiting its room to make the deep interest rate cuts demanded by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Seeking to boost flagging growth ahead of a June general election, Erdoğan has warned that defending high interest rates amounts to treason, ratcheting up pressure on the Central Bank and telling Governor Erdem Başçı to “shape up.”
Consumer prices rose 0.71 percent month-on-month in February, Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) data showed yesterday, just below a Reuters poll forecast of 0.75 percent. On an annual basis they rose to 7.55 percent from 7.24 percent in January.
Economists said the data showed there was probably enough to allow for a small interest rate cut in March but this was unlikely to be deep enough to satisfy Erdoğan.
