Turkey Inflation at 8-Year High

Turkey’s annual consumer price inflation stood at 11.72% in May, official data showed on Monday, edging back from the 8-year high a month earlier and slightly easing pressure on the central bank to keep monetary policy tight, Reuters reported. Consumer prices rose 0.45% in May from the previous month, the Turkish Statistics Institute said, above the 0.35% increase predicted by a Reuters poll. “The fall in inflation last month supports our view that policymakers will end the tightening cycle at next week’s MPC meeting,” Capital Economics Emerging Europe economist Liam Carson said in a note. The Turkish central bank’s monetary policy committee holds its rates-setting meeting on June 15. Consumer inflation was driven by a 5.97% rise in clothing and footwear prices but offset by a 0.55% fall in prices for food and non-alcoholic drinks and a 0.73% fall in transport prices. At the end of April, the central bank raised its inflation forecast for 2017 to 8.5% from 8% and said it was ready to tighten policy further if needed.