Turkey hit with soaring prices as inflation reaches 24-year high

theguardian.com:

Turkey’s official inflation rate jumped to almost 80% last month – the highest in 24 years – as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s unconventional economic policies continued to drive up the cost of living.

The growth in annual prices jumped from 73.5% in May to 78.6% in June, according to the Turkish statistics agency.

However, opposition parties and economists said recent oil and gas price hikes meant the real rate of inflation was almost double the official figure.

The minister of treasury and finance, Nureddin Nebati, has attempted to head off criticism of the government’s handling of the economy, saying last week that consumer prices would start dropping in December.

“I promise to you and to the president, we will see a drop in inflation starting in December,” he said.

His comments came after the government announced its second increase in the minimum wage in six months, raising pay by 30%. The increase lifted the monthly salary of about 40% of the workforce from $254 to $328.

Erdoğan has claimed that Turkey’s problem is not inflation. “We do not have an inflation problem. We have a cost-of-living problem,” he said last month.

However, economists said Turkey’s official data disguised a more disturbing trend of rising prices that had shown no sign of abating.

A monthly report release by Turkey’s ENAG group of independent economists showed consumer prices had risen by 175% in June compared with a year earlier. ENAG said prices had risen by 71.4% since the start of 2022.

The Istanbul chamber of commerce said inflation in Turkey‘s largest city has reached an annual rate of 94%.

“No one actually believes official Turkish data any more,” said BlueBay Asset Management economist, Timothy Ash. “There is no expectation of anything like a