Inflation in Turkey soared to 79% last month, the highest level the country has seen in 24 years.
The annual inflation rate was 78.62% for June, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, surpassing forecasts. That’s the country’s highest annual inflation reading in a quarter of a century. The monthly increase was 4.95%.
Increasing consumer prices have hit the population of 84 million severely, with far away hope for improvement as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, high energy and food prices, and a sharply depreciated lira, the national currency of the country.
Transportation prices soared 123.37% from the previous year, and food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose 93.93%, according to government data.
Turkey has seen rapid growth in previous years, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for the last few years refused to meaningfully raise rates to cool the resulting inflation, describing interest rates as the “mother of all evil.” The result has been a plummeting Turkish lira and far less spending power for the average Turk.
