Turkish consumer price inflation jumped to aĀ 14-year high in June, official data showed on Tuesday, driving the lira down andĀ putting pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates further this month.
Inflation rose to 15.39 percent year-on-year, the highest annual rate sinceĀ 2004 after a new method of calculating price rises was introduced, and month-on-month CPI inflation leapt to 2.61 percent - nearly double the forecastĀ in a Reuters poll.
Turkey's Central Bank (CBRT) has raised its main policy rates by 500 basisĀ points since April in an effort to arrest an 18 percent fall in the lira thisĀ year, despite President Tayyip Erdogan's opposition to higher rates. ItsĀ Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is due to meet again on July 24.
"The market is priced for further hikes," said Nomura Emerging MarketsĀ strategist Henrik Gullberg. "The central bank needs to break this vicious circleĀ where currency weakness is feeding into higher inflation but then an inadequateĀ central bank response is then feeding more currency weakness."
"They have been reactive whereas what they need to do is be pre-emptive. They need to hike rates aggressively."
In a Reuters poll, analysts had forecast the consumer price index (CPI)Ā would climb 1.4 percent month-on-month. The much steeper monthly increase pushedĀ annual inflation up 3 percentage points from 12.15 percent in May.
The rise was driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages which rose 5.98Ā percent on the month, and communication prices which climbed 4.76 percent, theĀ data showed.
Core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices,Ā was 14.60 percent year-on-year.
The lira, one of the worst-performing emerging market currenciesĀ which has hit record lows this year, weakened to 4.6973 against the dollarĀ briefly from 4.6215 immediately before the data. It was at 4.6740 at 0955 GMT.
Tuesday's inflation figures could point to a further tightening of monetaryĀ policy to raise the benchmark one-week repo rate to 20 percent from 17.75Ā percent, BlueBay Asset Management strategist Timothy Ash said in a note.
"No place to hide for the CBRT at the next MPC meeting on July 24. They willĀ be expected to hike again to continue to show their hawkish credentials," AshĀ said.
However investors have been concerned that Erdogan, a self-described "enemyĀ of interest rates", could exert pressure on the central bank to curb borrowingĀ costs following his re-election last month to a newly empowered executiveĀ presidency.
Further increases could also worsen an economic slowdown expected later thisĀ year.
"We expect the Central Bank to maintain the tight monetary policy but do notĀ expect further rate hikes taking into account the hard landing risk in theĀ second half of the year," said Is Invest economist Muammer Komurcuoglu.Ā
"Following today's surprise and ongoing rise in producer prices we revisedĀ up our year-end inflation estimate to 14 percent from 12 percent," he added,Ā saying he expected the rate to peak close to 16 percent.
Producer prices rose 3.03 percent month-on-month in June for an annual riseĀ of 23.71 percent.