In October, according to the Turkish statistics office, inflation was still at 85.5 percent. The relative decline is mainly due to the fact that the inflation rate was also significantly higher in November of last year. Higher prices in that base month mean the increase is slightly smaller. The Turkish lira has also remained relatively constant against the dollar and the euro in recent months, limiting the rise in energy prices.
Inflation in Turkey has been on the rise since May last year, when it was still at 16.6%. The country’s unorthodox economic policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plays a big part in this. He believes high interest rates fuel inflation and allow the central bank to continue lowering interest rates. He wants to stimulate exports with this. However, as a result of this policy, the lira fell sharply and importing goods became much more expensive.
Non-governmental economists at the Turkish research institute ENAG believe that inflation is much higher than reported by official channels. They calculated an inflation rate of 170.7% for November.