In a world of near zero inflation and economic fallout from the coronavirus, Turkey stands out with annual consumer prices climbing to 15%, second only to Argentina among emerging markets and by far the highest in the OECD.
Rising oil and fertilizer prices and dry weather are part of the reason food inflation jumped more than 20% in a year. But economists also point to government policy decisions which saw the lira dive to record lows last year, hiking import costs on some $9 billion in food.
A trip to a the market - where eggplant, orange and sunflower oil prices rose more than 50% last year - has become a serious strain for Turks in addition to the pandemic, which has already depressed workers and incomes.
A video has been widely circulated in Turkish social media in which a woman asks her husband for cooking oil to prepare food. The husband featured sleeping, hugging the oil bottle. This indicates how grave burden food prices have become on Turkish people.
With surveys showing pantries are thinning out, Erdogan may need to do more about basic living costs even after installing a new central bank chief who in November pledged to tame inflation.
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