Turkish inflation inches up in March to 68.5pc

ISTANBUL, Apr 03 (AFP): Price growth in inflation-plagued Turkey gathered pace in March, rising to 68.5 per cent year-on-year, the country's statistics agency TUIK said Wednesday.

The increased reading followed a Sunday municipal election drubbing for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party that many blamed on the out-of-control cost of living.

Last month the cost of education, health, transport and food showed the biggest increases, after inflation reached 67.07 per cent in February, TUIK said.

But ENAG, a group of independent economists, said their own calculations put the year-on-year figure at almost 125 per cent.

Pointing to slowing month-on-month inflation in the official data, at 3.16 per cent rather than February's 4.53 per cent, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek wrote that "monthly inflation decreased in line with our forecast".