ANKARA - Turkish consumer prices rose 1.95 percent in November compared with October to hit 8.4 percent on a 12-month basis, well above the government's target, the statistics institute said Monday.
The figures are a fresh blow to government hopes to narrow the gap with its year-end target of four percent, analysts said. The Central Bank has said it expects inflation to exceed six percent for all of 2007.
Producer or wholesale prices in November rose 0.89 percent from October, bringing the rate over 12 months to 5.65 percent, the statistics insitute said.
Fighting inflation is a key element in a three-year economic stability programme Turkey is implementing with the support of a 10-billion-dollar International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan which expires next year.
The IMF said in October that Turkey's economic outlook "remains positive overall" and "inflation should continue declining gradually" but warned that fiscal policies were "considerably" relaxed in 2007 and called for tighter measures next year.
In 2006, inflation reached 9.65 percent, nearly double the five-percent target set in the austerity programme.
Tight IMF-backed financial policies have helped the government beat inflation targets over the previous three years, bringing the rate down from 29.7 percent in 2002 to 7.7 percent in 2005.
su/sf/bmm
12/03/2007 15:54 GMT