Price growth in inflation-plagued Turkey gathered pace in March, rising to 68.5% year-on-year, the country's statistics agency TUIK said today. The increased reading followed a Sunday municipal election drubbing for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party that many blamed on the out-of-control cost of living. Last month the cost of education, health, transport and food showed the biggest increases, after inflation reached 67.07% in February, TUIK said.
But ENAG, a group of independent economists, said their own calculations put the year-on-year figure at almost 125%. Pointing to slowing month-on-month inflation in the official data, at 3.16% rather than February's 4.53%, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek wrote that"monthly inflation decreased in line with our forecast". Following a return to orthodox central bank policy, with the headline interest rate having been raised to 50%, the government has also vowed to control spending to brake activity and inflatio