‘Turkey saw the highest July inflation of the last 18 years’

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Shortly after the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency responsible for producing officials statistics on Turkey, released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July 2021 earlier today (August 3), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Vice Chair Veli Ağbaba has released a written statement about the consumer inflation in the country.

Commenting on the TurkStat statistics, Ağbaba has underlined that Turkey had the highest July consumer inflation rate of the last 18 years.

CLICK - Turkey's annual inflation rate at 18.95 percent in July

Noting that there is a gap between the consumer inflation rate and the producer inflation rate every month, CHP's Ağbaba has indicated that Turkey ranks 13th in the world in terms of high inflation rates.

"With the annual inflation rate of 18.95 percent announced today, we saw the highest July inflation rate of the last 18 years," Ağbaba has said, adding:

"While the monthly inflation rate in July 2021 was the highest monthly inflation rate which had been experienced in Turkey in the last 26 years, our inflation rate has been in double digits for the past 21 months."

'People's inflation is higher than official numbers'

CHP Vice Chair Ağbaba has raised concern about the people's inflation at this point. According to the MP, the price of sunflower oil has increased by 60 percent, the prices of chicken and margarine have increased by 49 percent, the price of eggs has risen by 27 percent and the price of bread has risen by at least 22 percent in Turkey over the past year.

Against the backdrop of these rates, Ağbaba has underlined that the price rises in basic food products have been much higher than the official inflation rates, which means that the people's inflation at their kitchents is much higher than the one officially announced by the TurkStat.

According to Ağbaba, Turkey's inflation rate is higher than those of 172 countries. The MP has noted that the inflation rate of the African countries like Gambia and Ghana (8 percent) is higher than that of Turkey.

"With 19 percent, Turkey ranks 7th in the world in terms of interest rates," Ağbaba has said, adding, "The countries with higher interest rates than us are countries like Yemen, Surinam and Angola. Our league, in terms of both inflation rates and interest rates, is the league of the 3rd world countries marked by underdeveloped economies and constant political turmoils." (HA/SD)