Turkey's January inflation piles pressure on central bank
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Turkey's annual inflation rate stayed stable in January at nearly 65 percent, but month-on-month consumer price increases jumped sharply following a huge hike, official data showed Monday. The year-on-year inflation rate moved to 64.86 percent -- up a notch from 64.77 percent in December. The monthly inflation rate in January climbed to 6.7 percent, from 2.9 percent in December, following a 49-percent rise in the minimum wage that went into effect in January. Turkey's finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, attributed the monthly inflation jump to 'temporary effects'. Turkey's central bank, which has raised its key rate from 8.5 percent to 45 percent since June, said last month that the level was sufficient to start easing the cost of living crisis. The bank's governor Hafize Gaye Erkan resigned on Friday, less than a year into her tenure, after a scandal involving her family. She was replaced by Fatih Karahan, a former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US online retail giant, who may be under pressure to again start raising the interest rate, analysts said. Inflation remains a pressing issue for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government ahead of local elections in March.

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