ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s fuel and tobacco tax increases next year will be set in a way that will not jeopardize the country’s 2025 inflation plans, Finance and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said.
Annual inflation in Turkey was 47.1% in November, higher than expected but at the lowest level since mid-2023. A Reuters poll forecast it would fall to 26.5% by the end of 2025, higher than the central bank’s forecast of 21 %.
Fuel and tobacco taxes increase each year based on the producer price index and have a large impact on inflation.
Simsek told reporters in Sanliurfa on Sunday that the government is determined to maintain the recent decline in inflation.
He also said that the government’s foreign currency hedged deposit scheme, known as KKM, would be scrapped without creating any instability in the markets. The central bank previously announced that it will end in 2025.
