Ankara:Turkey's annual consumer inflation decreased to 29.73% in September, marking the first time it has fallen below 30% since November 2021. This figure was lower than market expectations of 30.3%, as reported by official statistics released on Monday.

According to Anadolu Agency, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported a monthly rise in consumer prices of 1.84%. Among various sectors, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices saw a slight decrease of 0.20%, while transportation prices increased by 2.79%, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuel costs rose by 2.71%.

Transportation contributed 0.49 percentage points to the monthly inflation rate, with housing accounting for 0.33 percentage points. Meanwhile, food prices reduced the monthly figure by 0.05 percentage points. On an annual scale, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices increased by 27.62%, transportation costs by 35.10%, and housing prices by 39.99%, contributing 6.73, 5.96, and 4.84 percentage points, respectively, to the annual inflation.

Out of 174 expenditure subclasses monitored by TurkStat, prices rose in 133, decreased in 35, and remained unchanged in six.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek noted on Turkish social media platform NSosyal that the disinflation trend was becoming more widespread across sectors, with the exception of transportation. He highlighted that annual food inflation had fallen by 8.4 percentage points to 27.6%, and education inflation had decreased by 17.5 percentage points to 48.6%, attributed to rules-based regulations.

Simsek also pointed out a significant drop in annual rent inflation by 27.8 percentage points to 41.3%, with expectations of further declines. The government is in the process of gradually removing the fuel tax adjustment mechanism for gasoline, similar to what has been done for diesel, in an effort to mitigate the impact of rising oil prices on inflation.

He mentioned that, according to central bank estimates, inflation would have been 7 percentage points lower this year without the Iran war. The government continues to implement policies aimed at increasing the housing and food supply, with the goal of easing persistent services inflation, particularly in rents and education, and reducing the impact of commodity price increases to support disinflation by 2027.