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As the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced the official annual inflation rate in Turkey as 36.08% and the monthly rate in the last month of 2021 as 13.58%, a public survey revealed that according to more than 60% of the people, the annual inflation rate has been actually 100% or higher.
The founder of one of the most credible Turkish public survey companies published the results of a very recent survey on Twitter following TÜIK’s announcement on Monday.
Özer Sencer, the founder and director of MetroPOLL, said the survey indicated that those who believed the annual inflation rate to be around 20% made up only a tiny fraction (1.9) of those surveyed. Those who believed the rate to be between 50-100 percent made up 28.8% of those surveyed, and those who believed it was over 100 percent made up 61.5%.
While almost half of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) believe the annual rate is at least 100%, more than three quarters of supporters of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) believe it is 100% or higher.
The proportion of people who believed the rate is at least 100% is 46.4% amongst AKP supporters, 61.6% amongst supporters of the ruling coalition partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), 62.6% amongst supporters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), 74.1% amongst supporters of the opposition coalition partner Iyi Party, and 76.5% amongst HDP supporters.
The official rates announced by TÜİK have created great controversy and speculation in Turkey as they are believed to be manufactured for both political purposes and in order for the Erdoğan administration to be able to offer lower wage increases since TÜİK data is taken as a benchmark for changes in the minimum wage, in the salaries of the public servants and adjustments in the pensions of millions of retired public and private sector workers.
ENAGrup, an independent research group consisting of academic and professional experts, published its own data on annual inflation on Monday as well. The group announced the annual inflation rate as 82.81% and the monthly inflation rate in December 2021 as 19.35.
A historical price increase for electricity and natural gas as well as public transportation has been put in effect on the first day of 2022 so as to avoid having these increases being included in the statistical calculations for 2021 that would impact the annual inflation rate and consequently the rises in wages.
The recent electricity price increase ranges between 52% and 130% depending on the amount of consumption, and the natural gas price increase is 25% and 50% for houses and companies respectively.
