Turkey Consumer Price Inflation February 2008

The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) has announced that year-on-year consumer price inflation as of the end of February was up`by 9.1 percent. The Turkish Central Bank's year-end inflation target was 4 percent for 2008, but Turkey has just seen a full half of this inflation rate in one single month.



The highest annual increase was 14.75 percent in the housing index over same month of the previous year. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco prices increased by 14.34 percent; food and non-alcoholic beverages by 12.93 percent; and hotel, cafe and restaurant prices jumped by 11.02 percent.

The highest monthly increase in February was in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, at 5.05 percent. The consumer price indices rose for miscellaneous goods and services by 1.73 percent; for hotels, cafes and restaurants by 0.90 percent; for furnishings and household equipment by 0.86 percent; for transportation by 0.54 percent; for housing by 0.39 percent; for communications by 0.12 percent; for health by 0.07 percent; and for alcoholic beverages and tobacco by 0.02 percent.

The indices declined for education by 0.03 percent, while for clothing and footwear dropped by 6.93 percent due to discount sales and campaigns. The index remained the same for recreation and culture. The highest price increase was for cucumbers, by 62.69 percent in February, while the price of green peppers rose by 45.51 percent. Women's boots saw the largest decline, at 12.14 percent.