Turkey left the worst behind: Finance minister

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - On inflation Turkey has now turned the corner, Turkey's treasury and finance minister said on Wednesday.

"We left the worst behind, September was the worst month for inflation expectations," Berat Albayrak told news channel NTV.

Albayrak said the upward trend in inflation would reverse course after October, bringing the inflation rate closer to Turkey’s targets.

On Wednesday, TurkStat announced that Turkey's annual inflation reached 24.52 percent in September, up from 17.90 in August.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose by 6.30 percent in the month.

According to the country's new economic program announced on Sept. 20, the inflation target for this year is 20.8 percent, 15.9 percent for next year, 9.8 percent for 2020, and 6 percent for 2021.

He said the country has fended off speculative attacks carried out through exchange rates and liquidity issues in the banking sector.

"With the backing of measures we have applied, we see signals that we will proceed with more confident, concrete, and realistic steps," said Albayrak.

Albayrak said the figure was also driven by speculative pricing approaches in the country.

"As we mentioned in our new economic program, we will set a specific program of a total fight against inflation."

"We will start one-to-one sectoral and group-based dialogues and unveil the framework for it most likely next week," Albayrak said.