More than 45% of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) do not believe Turkey’s official inflation figures of 73.5%, believing the opposite to be more than double the figure measured by the independent inflation research group ( ENAG), according to a survey by the Turkish polling company MetroPoll, reports a report by ahvalnews.com.
Some 45.8 percent of AKP voters said they believed ENAG’s 160 percent inflation rate in May, according to Metrooll’s “Turkey’s Pulse – June 2022” survey shared on the pollster’s Twitter account, compared to 42 .6 percent which believes the figure announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) during the same period.
A total of 11.5% of AKP supporters did not express an opinion on the matter.
Annual consumer price inflation in Turkey accelerated to 73.5% in May, according to TÜİK, the highest level since 1998. Price increases in Turkey have gained momentum after the central bank cut interest rates to 14% from 19% at the end of last year and then holding them unchanged, causing the pound to sell off and the cost of imports to rise.
But critics say the figure is much higher, based on the sting felt by citizens struggling with rising prices. According to the Inflation Research Group (ENAG), an independent organization formed by economists and academics, real inflation in May in the country was measured at over 160%, Gerçek Gündem news website reported.
Those who believe ENAG’s 160% inflation rate were counted as 39.6% of voters in the AKP’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), 87.2% of voters in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), 84.5% of of voters of the center-right nationalist Good Party (İP) and 83.5% of supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), according to the survey.
A total of 69% of those surveyed said the inflation rate in Turkey was 160%, as reported by ENAG in May, compared to 23.9% who said they believed the rate was 74%, as reported by TÜİK in same period. The remaining 7.1 percent of respondents did not express an opinion on the matter.
Source: Capital
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