Election year 2024 – vote for me!
‘What do you mean… I have the right to remain silent?’
Turkey’s inflation nears 65%
In January 2024, inflation logged its biggest monthly jump since August with a 6.7% rise from December 2023.
Year-on-year inflation hit nearly 65%, according to the Turkish Central Bank’s figures released Monday 5th January 2024
The consumer price index (CPI) for the country of 85 million people increased by 64.86% annually, up slightly from the 64.77% of December.
Sectors with the largest monthly price rises were health at 17.7%, hotels, cafes and restaurants at 12%, and miscellaneous goods and services at just over 10%. Clothing and footwear were the only sectors showing a monthly price decrease, with -1.61%.
Food, beverages and tobacco, as well as transportation, all increased between roughly 5% and 7% month-on-month, while housing was up 7.4% since December 2024.
Interest rate hike to 45%, see report here.
Federal Reserve chair Powell insists ‘probably’ fewer rate cuts in 2024 than the market expects
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a U.S. TV interview on Sunday 4th January 2024 that the central bank will proceed carefully with interest rate cuts this year and likely will move at a considerably slower pace than the market expects.
Election year rate cuts?
In the interview and after last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting (FOMC), Powell expressed confidence in the economy. However, he promised he wouldn’t be swayed by this year’s presidential election and said the pain he feared from rate hikes never really materialised.
“With the economy strong like that, we feel like we can approach the question of when to begin to reduce interest rates carefully,” he reportedly said.
“We want to see more evidence that inflation is moving sustainably down to 2%,” Powell added. “Our confidence is rising. We just want some more confidence before we take that very important step of beginning to cut interest rates.”
Powell indicated that it was unlikely the FOMC will make that first move in March 2024, which markets have been anticipating.