Chamber of commerce reports Istanbul inflation rate as 62 percent

Ahead of the nationwide inflation data to be released by the government-run Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on May 3, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) has reported an annual inflation rate of 62.46 percent in April in the megacity.

Duvar English

The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) has published the retail and wholesale price indices for April for the megacity.

According to its calculations, retail prices jumped 4.57% month on month in April for an annual rise of 62.46%.

Wholesale prices in the city jumped 3.14% from March for an annual rise of 70.58%, the ITO said.

Accordingly, the biggest monthly rise in retail prices was in clothing expenditures with 29.04 percent, followed by the culture sector with 11.97 percent.

The biggest monthly rise in wholesale prices was in the raw materials with 16.25 percent, while prices of textile products and construction items climbed 3.35 percent and 2.96 percent respectively. A decrease of 10.45 percent was recorded for the chemical substances.

These indices are used by economists as an indicator of nationwide inflation.

Although the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced an annual inflation rate of 50.51% in March, ENAG Inflation Research Group, an independent institution set up in 2020 to track the country’s inflation, reported the inflation rate as 112.51%.

TÜİK and ENAG will release the inflation data for April on May 3.