UPDATES WITH BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MONTHLY FIGURES
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - Consumer prices in Turkey rose by 20.35 percent year-on-year in January, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported Monday.
The country's annual inflation went up 0.05 percentage points from 20.30 percent in December 2018.
TurkStat said the highest annual increase was 30.97 percent in food and non-alcoholic beverages in January.
Last week, an Anadolu Agency survey showed that a group of 16 economists forecast an average annual climb of 20.59 percent in consumer prices.
The economists also forecast that Turkey's year-end annual inflation would be 16.38 percent on average, with predictions varying between 13.50 and 19.80 percent.
On a monthly basis, the 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."
Official figures revealed that the 12-month average hike in consumer prices was 17.16 percent as of this January.
Last month, Turkey's Central Bank revised its year-end inflation forecast, dropping 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.