UPDATE - Turkey: Annual inflation up in April

ADDS ANALYSTS’ COMMENTS AND CONTEXT

By Tuba Sahin and Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's annual inflation rate increased in April, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday.

Consumer prices in Turkey rose 11.87 percent year-on-year in April from 11.29 percent in March, TurkStat said.

Meanwhile, monthly inflation also climbed 1.31 percent in April over the previous month, in parallel with expert predictions.

The median estimate of an inflation expectation survey prepared by Anadolu Agency’s Finance Desk, done with the participation of 22 economists, was a 1.30-percent advance on a monthly basis and 11.86 percent on an annual basis.

The report showed the highest monthly increase was in clothing and footwear, 9.13 percent, while the main drivers of yearly consumer price inflation on an annual basis were alcoholic beverages and tobacco, together up 21.65 percent.

The new data was in line with the Turkish Central Bank's recent forecast and previous inflation figures during the past few months.

The Central Bank raised its inflation forecast for 2017 to 8.5 percent from a previous forecast of 8 percent, according to the second inflation report revealed on April 28.

"Given a tight policy stance that focuses on bringing inflation down, inflation is estimated to converge gradually to the 5 percent target," Governor Murat Cetinkaya had said.

The tight stance in monetary policy will be maintained until inflation outlook displays a significant improvement, Cetinkaya underlined.

Commenting on the rates, Orkun Godek, vice president at Private Banking Capital Markets Products Sales at DenizBank, said the new data was in accordance with market expectations and did not lead to a volatility in the exchange rate.

"Although there has been an upward trend in the inflation rate, April figures can be considered as positive for now. Probably, the inflation rate will be lower in the second half of the year after it climbs a peak level in May," Godek added.

Erol Gurcan, research specialist at Gedik Yatirim, also said the rise of the inflation rate is derived mainly from the hike of food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, adding: "Reaching a plateau of core inflation indicators is the positive side of the data."

In particular, consumer prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages advanced by 15.63 percent annually, 1.23 percent monthly, according to TurkStat.

Gurcan said the Turkish Central Bank would keep the interest rates on hold by its next monetary policy meeting in June.