(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s consumer inflation accelerated for a sixth month in November, driven higher by a slump in the lira as the central bank lowered interest rates and rising energy costs.

Prices rose an annual 21.31% through last month, up from 19.89% in October. That was faster the 20.7% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 20 analysts. Monthly inflation was 3.51%, compared with the median estimate of 3% in a separate survey.

Key Insights

  • Annual price gains in food, which makes up roughly a quarter of the consumer basket, slowed to 27.11% from 27.41% but still well above official estimates even after the central bank revised its end-2021 prediction 23.4% from 15% previously
  • The rate of inflation in energy rose to 32.14% in November from 25.76% the previous month.
  • A core inflation index showed prices excluding volatile items such as food and energy rose an annual 17.62%, up from 16.82% in October, a sign of strong inflationary pressures underlying the headline figure.
  • Producer prices rose 10% through the month, bringing annual inflation to 54.6%, the highest reading since April 2002, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Markets

  • The lira was little changed after the report and was traded 0.3% lower at 13.7221 per dollar at 10:10 a.m. in Istanbul.

Background

  • The acceleration takes Turkey’s benchmark interest rate adjusted for inflation to negative 6.3%, one of the lowest real yields among emerging markets.
  • Retail price inflation in Istanbul, Turkey’s business capital, climbed to 24.05% last month from 20.76% in October.
  • The central bank will hold its next rate-setting meeting on Dec. 16
  • Turkey’s decision to slash four percentage points off borrowing rates since September has led to a slump in the lira, which year-to-date has depreciated around 45% against the dollar, the worst among all major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

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