"Turkey year-end inflation may be higher than projections"

Turkey's state minister for economy said on Thursday that the year-end inflation might be higher than projections. Ali Babacan said economy experts had not seen any serious inflationary risk in Turkey right now.

"However, we forecast a fluctuation in our inflation rate throughout the year, and the year-end inflation may be a bit higher than our projections," Babacan told AA correspondent in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Central Bank had earlier forecast the year-end inflation rate for 2011 around 5.3%. Babacan said some external developments, like oil or food prices, could affect Turkey's inflation figure.

The minister said besides global economic crisis, regional risk had escalated and could therefore affect global economy.

"Political crises in our region are affecting all around the world, particularly due to oil prices," Babacan said.

Babacan said oil prices had almost reached 125 USD, and therefore foreign conjuncture was challenging and risks were high.

"However, Turkey is taking steps on time to maintain its internal and economic stability, and getting good results," Babacan also said.

Turkey's statistical board, TurkStat, announced on Monday that the consumer prices were up 3.99 percent in March 2011.

The board made public inflation figures for March 2011 and said the consumer prices index (CPI) climbed 0.42% and the rise in producer prices index (PPI) was 1.22% in the mentioned month.

The annual inflation was up 3.99% in CPI and 10.08% in PPI in March. The three-month rise in CPI was 1.57% and 5.4% in PPI. According to 12-month average, the annual inflation was 7.29% in consumer prices, and 9.36% in producer prices.


/World Bulletin/