ANKARA: Turkish consumer prices fell slightly in February in line with a dip in food and drink prices, data showed on Thursday, coming out below market expectations and providing temporary respite on inflation concerns.
The data triggered slight gains in the lira. High inflation is a major worry for policy makers in Ankara and Turkey’s central bank left key interest rates unchanged for the 12th month running last month. Consumer prices fell 0.02 percent month-on-month in February, the TurkStat said, below a forecast of a 0.3 percent rise in a Reuters poll, for a year-on-year rise of 8.78 percent.
In January, annual consumer price inflation had jumped to 9.58 percent, hitting its highest level since May 2014 on the back of surging food, drinks and tobacco prices. The lira firmed to 2.9215 against the dollar after the data from 2.9310 beforehand, but eased back to 2.9255 by 0837 GMT. Thursday’s data showed domestic producer prices fell 0.20 percent on the month, for an annual rise of 4.47 percent.
