ISTANBUL
Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said Tuesday the rise in Turkish inflation rates has peaked and is expected to decrease in June.
Turkey's inflation rate rose to its highest level for 25 months in May, reaching 9.66% on yearly-basis consumer prices.
Speaking at an international economic meeting in Istanbul, Simsek said: "Inflation, with the numbers that were announced today, reached a peak."
"Turkey needs to bring it down back to near 5% rapidly," Simsek told the Euromoney Eurasia Forum.
Simsek blamed the high value loss in Turkish lira against foreign currencies, which has stopped recently, as the major reason of increasing inflation.
"Unpredictable price increases in unprocessed food also had an effect on it as well," he added.
The finance minister predicted a "highly probable" decrease in inflation rates as of June based on the lowering domestic demand and the output gap.
"The probability of a downwards inflation trend is highly probable thanks to the both monetary tightening and ‘macro-cautious’ measures that we have taken since last October," said Simsek.
Turkey passionately aims to increase savings and decrease domestic consumption in a bid to stabilize its foreign trade deficit and to lower inflation rates, while boosting exports and real investment.
aa.com.tr/en
