ANKARA: Turkey's annual inflation is expected to rise to 20.33 percent in April, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, as food prices continued to climb and tobacco prices jumped after nationwide elections.
A near 30-percent slide in the lira against the dollar last year stoked inflation, which reached a 15-year high of more than 25 percent in October.
After a few months of declines, it is stalled at high levels and remains among investors' main concerns.
Inflation declined slightly in February thanks to a dip in food prices that were driven lower by government-run stalls. But it rose slightly in March to 19.71 percent, from a year ago.
"We are expecting around 1 percent increase in April due to the price hikes to cigarettes and tobacco.
The fluctuations in the food prices continue," said Enver Erkan, an economist a GCM Yatirim.
The median estimate of 12 economists polled by Reuters was 20.33 percent for annual inflation in April, with estimates ranging between 19.79 percent and 20.8 percent.
Month-on-month, inflation is expected to rise 2.4 percent in April, the poll also showed, with estimates ranging between 1.94 percent and 2.8 percent.
After nationwide local elections on March 31, some brands of cigarette and tobacco products hiked prices around 20 percent in April while other brands left them unchanged. The effects not be fully seen in April inflation figures.
Turkey's central bank left its inflation forecasts unchanged at 14.6 percent for the end of 2019 and 8.2 percent next year in its quarterly inflation report, and it pledged to use all available tools to respond to an unexpected jump.
The median estimate for inflation at the end of 2019, stood at 16.1 percent, the poll showed, slightly above the government's estimate of 15.9 percent.
Faced with the currency crisis, the central bank raised its policy rate to 24 percent in September. The high borrowing costs, combined with surging import prices hit economic activity, driving the economy into recession in the last quarter of 2018.
April inflation data will be released on May 3 at 0700 GMT.
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