by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's disinflation program is expected to show results in June, as the government's economic team has predicted. However, due to a less positive outlook since January, economists said control over inflation may take more time.
The country's inflation accelerated to 69.8 percent annually in April, up from 68.5 percent in March, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Friday.
However, Mehmet Simsek, the architect of a policy overhaul kickstarted in mid-2023, is optimistic about Türkiye's economic prospects.
The Turkish treasury and finance minister stated repeatedly in recent weeks on different occasions that the staggering inflation rate is set to decline sharply starting next month as part of the monetary tightening program.
Simsek also said last week that the government would take additional fiscal measures to support disinflation efforts and proceed to a public spending cut.
Experts have largely welcomed last year's policy reversal but consider that stricter fiscal discipline is needed to tame staggering inflation.
"We haven't seen many concrete results on the inflation front since the new program was launched," Mustafa Sonmez, a Turkish economist and writer, told Xinhua.
He said the economic team had to convince consumers that the current disinflation program would yield positive results in the short term.
Families struggling with price increases of all basic commodities are eagerly expecting some relief since Simsek and his team took the reins of the economy and promised to address their hardships.
Senol Babuscu, a professor of finance from Ankara's Baskent University, said 11 months have passed since Simsek took office, but the inflation rate remains elevated.
"Inflation was 38 percent then, it is almost 70 percent now. Did he implement the wrong policies? No, he implemented the right, rational policies. However, he implemented incomplete policies," Babuscu told Xinhua.
He called on the government to increase monetary tightening and put immediately into effect other fiscal and monetary tools to curb inflation.
Babuscu also welcomed the central bank's efforts to rebuild foreign exchange reserves to prop up the weakened Turkish lira.
On April 25, the central bank kept its key policy rate unchanged at 50 percent but didn't rule out further rate hikes if the general outlook deteriorates.
On the plus side, Türkiye's efforts to attract foreign capital inflow have gained pace, Simsek wrote earlier on social media platform X.
According to the minister, Türkiye saw a net portfolio inflow of 16.8 billion U.S. dollars from June 2023 to February 2024.
Simsek also announced on Monday that the country had secured financing of 6.3 billion dollars from the Islamic Development Bank over the next two years for various development projects.
According to observers, more foreign investments will depend on whether Türkiye will follow through on its promise of pushing for structural reforms to increase economic resilience against inflation and address income inequality.■
