Inflation has reached 70% in a country that is on the Romanians’ top vacation list. Higher prices at hotels and cafes

Inflation in Turkey accelerated to 69.8% in April in annual terms, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported on Friday, with the largest year-on-year consumer price increases in education, with a jump of 103, 86%, and hotels, cafes and restaurants, with an increase of 95.82%, reports CNBC.

Compared to March, prices increased by 3.18%, led by the increase in the prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, as well as accommodation in hotels, cafes and restaurants.

The inflation rate in April marks the highest annual increase in prices since November 2022, when inflation was approximately 85%, writes news.ro.

While that’s a staggering figure, April’s nearly 70% CPI was actually a smaller jump than many analysts expected. But any hope of an interest rate cut is far away, economists said.

Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 50%, citing the continued need to counter inflation in the country.

The bank said in March that “a tight monetary stance will be maintained until a significant and sustained decline in monthly core inflation is observed.”

“Turkey’s slightly lower-than-expected price growth in April to 69.8% y/y (consensus 70.3%) offers encouraging signs that price pressures have eased again,” said Liam Peach, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, based in London.

He also said that “we believe that inflation will slow down in the second half of this year, but we are not as optimistic about the rate of disinflation. … In this context, we still do not expect the central bank to cut interest rates until next year.”

Publisher: GM

Download the Digi24 app and find out the most important news of the day