Turkey raises year-end inflation estimate to 65.2% on imports

Turkey’s central bank raised its projection for year-end inflation by nearly five percentage points, citing the higher costs of energy and other imports.

Governor Sahap Kavcioglu said Turkish consumer inflation would be around 65.2% at the end of 2022, up from the central bank’s July forecast of 60.4%, and slow to 22.3% next year.

The monetary authority delivered its most up-to-date baseline scenario for future consumer prices at a news conference where it also unveiled its last quarterly inflation report of the year. Kavcioglu said a normalization in global energy costs should help slow price gains next year even as he is cutting interest rates to single digits in line with demands by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Consumer inflation accelerated to over 83% last month, the highest level in more than two decades and more than 16 times Turkey’s official target of 5%.