The price of 220g bread has increased by 50 kuruş (4.37 euro cents), after bakers in Istanbul applied to the Istanbul Governor’s Office and Istanbul Chamber of Commerce for a rise in the price of bread. The price of a loaf of bread has increased from 2 to 2.50 liras.
With the latest increase, the cost of bread in Istanbul has gone up by about 42 percent in the last seven months. Bakers say that they were forced to demand the rise due to an increase in the price of ingredients as a result of the economic crisis. Citizens have reacted saying, “Even bread is a luxury for us.”
Mezopotamya News Agency spoke to people in the streets regarding the price rises.
“When a 184-lira sack of flour goes up to 280 liras, then there is a 2.50 liras increase in bread. Naturally, our customers react badly. In the next price-rise, which will be soon, a sack of flour will be 300 liras. Then bread will be 3 liras, that’s what we’re expecting. What I’m trying to say is that there is an economic crisis because the lamps in the [presidential] palace are burning,” says a baker woman in Istanbul, blaming the government for the situation.
Meanwhile another citizen reacts to the rise in prices saying, “It’s enough now! Enough! Enough!”
“What am I supposed to think, my friend! It’s enough now! Enough! Enough!
Inflation! Inflation! Inflation! We’re sick of it, we’re hungry, so hungry. Where is it all going, how is it going to work? Let them find a way out of this, we’re going to go crazy. It’s enough!”