October inflation exceeds expectations

While economists were anticipating a rise of 1.88 percent in October over the previous month, the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 2.41 percent last month over September and the producer price index (PPI) rose by 0.28 percent in the same period, according to numbers released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) on Tuesday.

With these figures, the CPI increased 5.08 percent over the same month of last year, the lowest figure in the last 39 years. The PPI was 0.19 percent higher last month than it was in October 2008. As for the cumulative figures for the first 10 months of the year, the CPI increased by 4.64 percent over December 2008, and the PPI increased by 3.9 percent in the same period. The 12-month moving average inflation rate was 6.95 percent for the CPI and 2.2 percent for the PPI.

October saw the highest monthly increase in the CPI for clothing and footwear -- 8.39 percent over the previous month. The consumer price indices rose for food and non-alcoholic beverages by 2.96 percent; for furnishings and household equipment by 2.51 percent; for housing by 2.12 percent; for transportation by 2.11 percent; for hotels, cafés and restaurants by 1.24 percent; for communication by 1.21 percent; for miscellaneous goods and services by 0.93 percent; for recreation and culture by 0.85 percent; for education by 0.17 percent; for alcoholic beverages and tobacco by 0.14 percent; and for health services by 0.06 percent.

The highest year-on-year rise was seen in the CPI for alcoholic beverages and tobacco -- 20.95 percent in October of this year compared to the same month of the previous year.

The agriculture sector saw a 1.13 percent rise in the PPI last month over the previous month, while the industrial sector saw a 0.10 percent increase. The PPI in the agricultural sector decreased by 5.52 percent compared to the same month of 2008. The industrial sector saw a 0.97 percent drop in the PPI in the same period.

The highest monthly increase in the PPI of industrial activities was recorded as 2.28 percent for the manufacture of clothes. The manufacturing sector saw a 0.19 percent monthly increase in its PPI, while the mining sector index fell by 1.44 percent and electricity, gas and water index decreased by 0.24 percent in October compared to the previous month.