Official figures released on Thursday indicated that inflation in Turkey reached nearly 70% in April
Consumer prices increased by 69.97 percent in April compared to previous year, the largest year-over-year rise since 2002, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.
In March, the annual inflation was 61.14 percent.
In comparison, the highest U.S. inflation in 40 years was 6.6 percent last month, according to the favored measure of the US Federal Reserve, and 7.5 percent in the 19 countries that use the euro currency.
To battle inflation, some central banks around the world are hiking interest rates, as the Fed did on Wednesday and the Bank of England did on Thursday.
However, detractors in Turkey blame rising costs on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s economic policies, which support decreasing interest rates in order to encourage growth and exports. High borrowing costs, according to the Turkish leader, generate inflation, a position that goes against conventional economic reasoning.
Despite strong inflation, Turkey’s central bank has dropped rates by 5 percentage points since September, to 14 percent, before stopping them in January. Last year, the Turkish lira lost 44% of its value against the US dollar.
The situation in import-dependent Turkey has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in a spike in gas, oil, and food prices. According to the data, the transportation industry saw the most price rises in Turkey last month, at 106 percent, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverage costs at 89 percent.
The government has imposed tax cuts on basic products and reduced electricity pricing to ease the damage to people.
Last week, Erdogan assured reporters that inflation would start to fall in May and move in a “more positive path” by the end of the year.
