Turkey’s annual inflation went up by 0.05 percent and stood at 20.35 percent in January, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) said on Monday.
According to the data, the highest annual increase was 30.97 percent in food and non-alcoholic beverages compared to January 2018.
Last week an Anadolu news agency survey showed that a group of 16 economists forecast an average annual rise of 20.59 percent in consumer prices.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices climbed 1.06 percent in January.
“The highest monthly increase was 6.43 percent in food and non-alcoholic beverages,” TurkStat said. “The highest monthly decrease was 7.95 percent in clothing and footwear.”
Last month Turkey’s central bank revised its year-end inflation forecast, dropping it to 14.6 percent from 15.2 percent.
As noted in Turkey’s new economy program announced in September 2018, the country’s inflation rate target is 15.9 percent this year, 9.8 percent next year and 6.0 percent in 2021.
Over the last decade, annual inflation saw its lowest level at 3.99 percent in March 2011, while it peaked at 25.24 percent in October 2018.