According to official figures, Turkey’s inflation decreased in November for the first time since May 2021, giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a benefit ahead of the election the next year.
The rate decreased from 85.51 percent in October to 84.39 percent, according to state statistics agency TUIK.
Since falling to a low of 16.6% in May 2021, Turkey’s inflation rate has climbed rapidly.
Erdogan’s route to a third decade in power in a presidential election expected by next June has become significantly hampered by the shaky economy of the emergent market.
When Erdogan embarked on an unorthodox economic experiment last year that attempted to cut persistently high consumer prices by lowering borrowing costs, his popularity started to decline. Conventional economic theory, which is accepted by nearly every other major country, takes the exact opposite approach.
The value of the Turkish lira fell almost immediately as people hurried to buy dollars and gold in an effort to secure their assets. Oil and gas prices rose sharply, fueling an inflationary spiral that was further fueled by the supposedly independent central bank’s continued lowering of interest rates.
Erdogan has insisted that his relentless pursuit of economic growth at any costs, accomplished through low-cost financing and governmental assistance, will finally bear fruit. He said over the weekend that “we will soon observe the rapid drop of inflation and we will see jointly that the nasty scenarios built on this issue are destroyed and thrown away.”
Erdogan has linked the rise in Turkey’s inflation to external reasons like the global increase in food and energy costs brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Erdogan’s economic team, which has received severe criticism, praised the revelation as support for their strategy.
Unless there is an unforeseen global event, we have entered a downward trend in inflation, leaving the peak behind, as we have previously mentioned in various media, Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati tweeted.
Unless Erdogan drastically modifies his strategy, the majority of analysts predict that Turkey’s inflation rate will continue to decline but stay high for many months to come.
Economists predict that Erdogan’s huge diplomatic reversal this year will result in a corresponding flood of financing from the Kremlin and Turkey’s old Middle Eastern rivals, which will aid the government in stabilizing the lira.
