Türkiye's annual inflation eases to 12-month low in February

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's annual consumer inflation rate eased to a 12-month low of 55.18% in February, according to data released on Friday.

The figure was down from 57.68% in January and below the market forecast of 55.50%.

While prices in hotels, cafes and restaurants posted the largest annual hike with 74.34% in February, clothing and footwear saw the lowest rise with 21.96%, according to TurkStat.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in Türkiye increased 3.15% in February, a slower pace than 6.65% surge in January.

The highest monthly hike was 7.36% in food and non-alcoholic beverages among the main groups, while the cost of clothing and footwear decreased 1.76%, according to TurkStat.

Due to the Feb. 6 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, "field prices" could not be gathered in February within the provinces where Gaziantep, Malatya and Hatay Regional Directorates of TurkStat are located, TurkStat noted.

"On the other side, in the provinces affiliated to these three Regional Directorates, the use of "workplace barcode scanner data" and "price data compiled from the internet via web scraping techniques" have continued to be used," it added.