Turkey inflation rises to 69.8% in April

Turkey's annual inflation rate accelerated to 69.8 per cent in April, official data showed on Friday, despite interest rate hikes aimed at taming soaring consumer prices.

Inflation had reached 68.5 per cent in March, also an increase from the previous month, as the country's struggles to overcome a cost-of-living crisis.

The central bank began to hike its key rate in June 2023, gradually taking it from 8.5 per cent to 50 per cent after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan loosened his objections to such monetary policies.

It decided last week to keep borrowing costs steady but warned it could raise them again if inflation deteriorates.

Erdogan long blamed inflation on high interest rates, even though it is the conventional policy at central banks worldwide to raise borrowing costs in order to lower inflation.

But after winning re-election last year, he returned to economic orthodoxy and expressed full confidence in his economic team led by Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek.