Its so long since I looked the Central Banks inflation policy I couldn't remember what the targets were for the end of 2015, but I suspect they wont be happy campers. Last month saw it rise to 9.58% (up from 8.81%), mainly due to the increases in food prices and tax hikes on alcohol and tobacco - electricity going up by 6.8% didn't help either.
I noticed in a thread below this one Nichola was asking for best interest rates - 10 and 11 percent seemed to be about as good as folks were getting and today Finans are offering 10.2% as their best deal (TD a/c's). I reckon this is the narrowest gap I've seen for a while between highest interest available on deposit accounts and the current rate of inflation.
Unfortunately, it looks like the
TCB expect it to continue to rise over the next wee while:
In sum, annual inflation increased in the fourth quarter due to an ongoing rise in food prices as well as the lagged effects of the Turkish lira depreciation throughout 2015. The upcoming inflation outlook is expected to depend on both the volatility in energy and unprocessed food prices and the effects of the global market uncertainty on inflation expectations. In addition, the large adjustment made to net minimum wages for 2016 will have an impact on inflation. Therefore, inflation is expected to remain elevated for some time. At this juncture, in addition to maintaining a tight monetary policy stance, fighting against the structural elements of inflation also remains important. On the basis that there is a higher likelihood of the lira losing more ground against the dollar, maybe the best strategy is to lump your TL into dollars and take the 1.85% (or there abouts) available on TD accounts in the knowledge that your are actually making a little bit extra, as opposed to simply keeping pace with inflation...
JF