Inflation in Türkiye's largest city, Istanbul, picked up 1.19% month-over-month in November, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) said on Monday, ahead of the widely anticipated nationwide statistics due later this week.
The November consumer price index (CPI) in the metropolis also advanced 38.28% from a year earlier, according to ITO.
Leading the increase in monthly prices were alcoholic beverages and tobacco, with 2.59%, alongside housing at 2.30%, the data showed. On the other hand, the highest decrease was observed in the clothing and footwear expenditures group (-1.55%).
The inflation data for the city, home to about a fifth of Türkiye's population of 86 million, is significant as it points to a larger trend and can offer an insight ahead of the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The data for Istanbul also comes amid growing expectations among economists and analysts that the November monthly print could be more positive and come within a range of/around 1%.
Annual inflation in the country eased to as low as 32.87% in October, compared to around 75% in the middle of last year, according to the official data. Month-over-month, the CPI advanced 2.55% in October, following a sharper-than-expected uptick of 3.23% in September.
Last week, the governor of the Turkish central bank, Fatih Karahan, suggested that the preliminary indicators suggest that disinflation continues in a healthy way in November.
Also, last week, the results of a November inflation survey by finance-focused Bloomberg HT showed that the median expectation of monthly inflation of 18 participating institutions is 1.25% for the month.
The lowest monthly inflation expectation for November was 0.98%, while the highest was 1.65%.
On an annual basis, the highest inflation forecast for November was 32.2%, while the lowest forecast was 31.2%.
The official data will be released on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. local time (07:00 GMT).
