Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was “apparent” that inflation would fall to around 40% in a few months, and further to 20% in 2023.
Turkey’s annual inflation declined to 84.39% in November, data showed last week, easing from a peak of 85.51% a month earlier.
Turkey’s inflation slowed in November for the first time since May 2021, official data showed.
The rate slowed to 84.39 percent, according to state statistics agency TUIK, down from 85.51 percent in October.
Turkey’s inflation has risen steadily since reaching a low of 16.6 percent in May 2021.
The emerging market’s troubled economy has turned into a major stumbling block on Erdogan’s path to a third decade in power in a presidential poll due by next June.
Erdogan’s approval rating began to suffer when he set off on an unusual economic experiment last year that tried to bring down chronically high consumer prices by lowering borrowing costs.
Conventional economic theory embraced by almost every other big nation pursues the exact opposite approach.
Turkey’s lira began to drop in value almost immediately, as consumers rushed to buy up dollars and gold to try and protect their savings.
The price of imports such as oil and gas soared, creating an inflationary spiral that the nominally independent central bank fed further by continuing to lower interest rates.
Erdogan has maintained that his unwavering focus on economic growth at all costs — achieved through cheap lending and state support — will eventually pay off.
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