Inflation up 2.33 pct in OECD countries in September

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Consumer prices in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries rose 2.33 percent in September on a yearly basis, the OECD disclosed on Tuesday.

The average annual inflation for 35 OECD countries was up from 2.19 percent in August.

"Energy prices increased by 7.7 percent, compared with 5.9 percent in August while food prices increased marginally by 1.9 percent, compared with 1.8 percent in August," the OECD said.

The organization noted that excluding food and energy, inflation was stable at 1.8 percent for the fifth consecutive month.

According to OECD data, the highest annual inflation was seen in Turkey with 11.2 percent, followed by Mexico and Estonia with a 6.35 and 3.67 percent, respectively,

In September, the lowest annual hikes in general prices were observed in Israel (0.10 percent), Ireland (0.20 percent) and Switzerland (0.65 percent).

Among major economies -- G7 countries -- the highest annual inflation was seen in the U.K. with a 3 percent increase and the lowest was in Japan with a 0.70 percent hike. The average annual inflation for G7 countries was 1.88 percent.

During the same period, consumer prices rose 2.23 percent in the U.S., 1.76 percent in Germany, 1.55 percent in Canada, 1.10 percent in Italy and 0.99 percent in France.

Last year, the average annual inflation in the OECD area was 1.1 percent, up from 0.6 percent in 2015. Over the last 10 years, the highest annual inflation was seen in 2008 -- 3.68 percent -- while the lowest was 0.51 percent in 2009.

In 2016, the OECD economies grew by 1.78 percent on average to reach nearly $54 trillion, amounting to 71.5 percent of the world economy.