ISTANBUL
The annual inflation rate further slowed from 49.38 percent in September to 48.58 percent in October, the lowest rate since July 2023, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on Nov. 4.
Consumer prices advanced 2.88 percent last month, easing from 2.97 percent in September.
“It takes time to remove rigidities, but developments in this regard are positive,” Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek wrote on social media platform X, commenting on the latest inflation numbers.
“The decline in 12-month inflation expectations in October to the lowest level in the last two and a half years in all sectors is important for breaking the inertia in services inflation,” he said.
Annual increases, especially in the rent and education groups, where backward pricing behavior is high, limit the decline in inflation, according to the minister.
“With the economic program we are implementing… We aim to further strengthen the disinflation process in the coming period and achieve our single-digit inflation target,” Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said.
“We expect the effects of seasonal pricing to wane in the last quarter of 2024, an improvement in service inflation, and the positive course of global commodity prices to contribute to the disinflation process,” Yılmaz added.
Analysts had forecast the annual and monthly inflation rates at 47.98 percent and 2.46 percent, respectively, for October.
Clothing prices surged 14.3 percent month-on-month, while the monthly increase in food prices was 4.33 percent, which brought the annual food inflation to 45.3 percent.
Communication costs rose 3.5 percent monthly and 37.8 percent annually in October, TÜİK said.
Housing prices were up 2.93 percent, for an annualized increase of 89.39 percent.
Transport, alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices fell by 0.54 percent and 0.04 percent in October compared to September, respectively.
The B-index, one of the Central Bank’s favored core inflation indicators, which excludes prices of unprocessed food, energy, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and gold, rose 2.69 percent in October, down from the previous month’s 3.22 percent. The year-on-year increase in the B-index slowed from 48.23 percent to 47.1 percent.
The bank’s other favored gauge of core inflation, the C-index, which excludes energy, food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and gold prices, posted a monthly increase of 2.79 percent in October, slowing from 3.57 percent in September.
The annual rise in this index eased from 49.1 percent to 47.75 percent.
