ISTANBUL: Turkey’s annual inflation rate edged up to 61.98% in November, data showed on Monday, just shy of expectations and boosted to its highest level this year by food and transportation prices.

Month-on-month, consumer price inflation (CPI) was 3.28%, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, also less than a forecast of 3.9% in a Reuters poll.

Annual inflation was expected to have risen to 63% in November before ending the year at 67%, the poll showed. It is seen peaking in May between 70-75% before dipping as an aggressive monetary tightening cycle weighs.

In October, annual inflation had dipped for the first time in three months to 61.36%.

Inflation soared after a currency crisis at the end of 2021 and touched a 24-year peak of 85.51% in October last year. This year, the lira has so far lost some 35% of its value, compounding the cost-of-living crisis for Turks.

The domestic producer price index was up 2.81% month-on-month in November for an annual rise of 42.25%, the data showed.

The latest run-up in inflation began in July on the back of tax hikes and a sharp decline in the lira following May elections.

Since June, the central bank has reversed a years-long policy of low rates that had long been favoured by President Tayyip Erdogan. It has hiked rates by 3,150 basis points to stem inflation and also adjusted a raft of credit rules.