Istanbul, Nov 26 : , Turkish citizens are facing increasing difficulties in coping with rising prices for almost all items amid high inflation and depreciation of the national currency. The Turkish currency lira lost around 40% of its value against the US dollar this year, while the annual inflation reached almost 20% in October.
On Tuesday, the currency fell to a new historic low against its greenback.One dollar was traded at 13.50 lires.
According to Xinhua news agency, supermarkets, shops, and grocery stores in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, have been constantly reflecting the falling value of the lira on the prices.This was partly due to psychological motives.
“I walked into a store selling underwear products the other day.One pair of underpants cost 50 liras ($4) more than 25 in less time,” Filiz Ertekin (77-year-old Istanbul resident who lives in the Asian side Kadikoy) told Xinhua.
The seller advised her to not delay and said that the product would be more expensive next week.
“Turkey is having a problem with changing the price tags because of the increase in costs mostly caused by the rise in gasoline prices,” Mustafa Sonmez (an economy writer) told Xinhua.
Turkey raised gasoline prices by 1 lira per gallon on Wednesday midnight.
Sonmez believes that some price increases are psychological because everyone is trying to protect their own mental health.
He said, “It’s a chain reaction of sellers trying to increase the price for goods and services used daily by saying that the cost of everything is increasing somehow.”
Some quotas have been placed on the sale of certain products, including sunflower seed oil, sugar, and Turkish coffee.
“I am afraid that this whole process will lead us to stocking with the growing speculations,” said a grocery shop owner in Istanbul’s crowded Besiktas.
“Neighbors are telling each other that they will buy more toilet paper because of the expected price increases.”
Political stability is the key to bringing down price increases for Sonmez.
He said, “Otherwise it would continue as long the element of trust was missing.”
Heating in winter has become very expensive due to the rising cost of natural gas.
Turkey increased the price of natural gas used in power plants and industry by almost 50 percent in November.However, consumer gas prices remained unchanged.
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