Turkish inflation jumped to a new 24-year high exceeding 83% in September, official data showed today, after the central bank cut interest rates despite surging prices.
Turkey's monetary policymakers are bucking the global trend of central bank raising interest rates to combat inflation, as high borrowing rates cool down the economy and prices.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has focused on growth ahead of a general election in June, has repeatedly railed against higher rates, calling them his "biggest enemy".
The country's central bank has followed his philosophy, lowering its policy rate to 12% from 13% last month.
Erdogan has called for more rate cuts at the bank's next policy meeting on October 20.
The TUIK state statistics agency said today that consumer prices rose by 83.45% in September on an annual basis, up from 80.2% in August.
The Turkish lira hit a new record low of 18.56 against the dollar following the announcement.
But opposition leaders and many Turks no longer trust official government data.
A respected monthly study released by independent economists from Turkey's ENAG research institute also showed prices soaring - at a much higher rate than the one reported by the state statistics agency.
ENAG said the official annual rate of consumer price increases reached 186.27% in September, compared to 181.37% in August.
