Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said he expects April inflation to be below 50% and that citizens will feel the impact before they vote in May’s elections.
(Bloomberg) — Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said he expects April inflation to be below 50% and that citizens will feel the impact before they vote in May’s elections.
“Inflation will have slowed to notably below 50%,” Nebati said of the data, which will be announced on May 3 — less than two weeks before May 14 vote. “As of May, this relaxation in prices will become much more noticeable.”
The comments in an interview with state-run TRT television aimed to alleviate concerns over the worst cost-of-living crisis in two decades, which is threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chances of reelection.
While Turkey’s inflation has been slowing since it hit a two-decade high of 85.5% in October, the March reading still came in at 50.5%, showing that the government’s ultra-loose monetary policy was struggling to tame spiraling prices.
Nebati said the Turkish economy was resilient to shocks and was recovering in the wake of the February earthquakes — the worst in the country’s history — which left more than 50,000 people dead.
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