This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service on November 25, 2024, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (R) meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (L) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara. (Photo by TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)
Istanbul, Turkey — Turkey’s annual inflation rate slowed for the sixth month in a row in November, official data showed Tuesday, as the central bank has kept borrowing costs high to battle price rises.
Consumer prices rose by 47.1 percent last month, down from 48.6 percent in October, according to the Turkish statistics agency.
The central bank began to raise interest rates last year to battle soaring prices, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his opposition to orthodox monetary policy.
READ: Turkish inflation falls to 61.78% in July
Its main interest rate has been kept at 50 percent for the past eight months.
The central bank has raised its forecast for inflation for this year and the next as consumer price increases slowed less than expected in recent months.
It now expects inflation to reach 44 percent at the end of 2024, up from a previous estimate in August of 38 percent.
Consumer prices are expected to rise by 21 percent by the end of 2025, compared to 14 percent in the last forecast.