Turkey's inflation nears 60%, piling pressure on new team

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s annual inflation approached 60 percent last month, official data showed Monday, putting pressure on the central bank to further hike interest rates at the risk of angering President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The state statistics agency said prices rose by 58.9 percent over 12 months ending in August compared to 47.8 percent in July.

The latest data will test the limits of how much leeway Erdogan’s new market-friendly team has to raise borrowing costs.

“Pretty awful inflation prints,” emerging markets economist Timothy Ash remarked in emailed comments.

“This will heap pressure on the (central bank) to further significantly hike policy rates from 25 percent at present.”

The Turkish leader has been a lifelong opponent of high interest rates due to his unorthodox conviction that they cause — rather than help cure — inflation.

His decision to push policymakers to slash rates in the face of rising consumer prices saw inflation soar to 85 percent last year.

The economic crisis nearly cost Erdogan his re-election in May.

He won after showering his supporters with massive pay increases and introducing an early retirement programme that cost the government billions of dollars.

Analysts feared that Turkey would enter a systemic crisis unless Erdogan radically changed course after the vote.

He did just that by overhauling his government and tapping a handful of respected Wall Street veterans to top economic posts.

Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and new central bank chief Hafize Gaye Erkan have begun to carefully dismantle Erdogan’s economic legacy and win over foreign investor trust.

Erkan initially caused consternation by raising the central bank’s policy rate from 8.5 percent to 17.5 percent over two months — far less than analysts had hoped.

But she thrilled the markets by lifting it to 25 percent last month.

The lira briefly gained nearly eight percent against the dollar and the cost of insuring Turkish government debt against default sharply fell.

Erdogan followed the rate hike by declaring full support for the course taken by his team.

Inflation is being driven by increases in taxes and fuel prices that Simsek imposed to pay for Erdogan’s campaign pledges and a massive reconstruction effort launched after a major earthquake claimed more than 50,000 lives in Turkey’s southeast.

Official data showed transportation prices rising by 70.2 percent and those of restaurants and hotels by 89.3 percent.

Simsek on Monday appealed for patience and hinted that more interest rate hikes were in store.

“We know that the fight against inflation will take some time. We are in the transition period,” he said on social media.

“We will do whatever is necessary (monetary tightening, credit and incomes policies) to control inflation and then lower it.”