A New Response to Criticism of Inflation Rate from the President of TURKSTAT

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced the inflation rate for 2021 as 36.08%. However, this rate did not reflect the reality according to some groups and was far below the real inflation rate. While the discussions about TÜİK continue, TurkStat President Prof. Dr. Also from Sait Erdal Dinçer explanations are coming. Dinçer, in a statement he made today, responded to inflation criticism again.

Speaking to Dünya Newspaper, TURKSTAT President Dinçer said:What is the difference between announced inflation and felt inflation?‘ to the question ‘We measure inflation, not cost of living” gave the answer. TURKSTAT is not an institution that calculates the cost of living, within the framework of EurostatHe stressed that he calculates inflation in a way that is clear to them.

“People’s inflation varies from person to person”

Dinçer continued to explain why the difference between the announced figure and the inflation felt was as follows:

“Public inflation is discussed all over the world. Perceived inflation is a different concept all over the world. People always look at the products that they bought the last time they felt inflation and consumed more frequently. There are two measures of inflation. You either focus on inflation or you focus on the cost of goods. We measure inflation. Public inflation varies from person to person.. We are fully bound by Eurostat rules.

Actually, it has two purposes. The first is to produce figures that will help the Central Bank’s monetary policy, by which decision makers can interpret price developments, and the second is to assist international accounts. For this, we make a fixed basket. Our definitions, workplaces, quality are constant. We go through these fixed definitions throughout the year.

Second, our cart has a weight system. This weight system can change everything, perception. By perception we mean, for example, if you have a child, you will be more affected by baby food, you will be more affected by diapers. If I don’t have this, I will be affected by different things. A separate index can be thought of as a special scope. Our current structure does not produce indexes for any income group or any employee group. We produce data to cover 84 million. However, the TÜRK-İŞ index and our sub-indices, food inflation, are directly correlated.”

“The best-selling products of the regions with the highest turnover are taken into account”

Dinçer stated that they benefited from the Household Consumption Tendency Survey in calculating inflation, after establishing the system, they went to the same workplace and had the same definition, that they tried to compile the same brand products for a year stated. Expressing that they consider the places with the highest turnover in the region when choosing the workplace to be quoted, Dinçer said that the best-selling products are also taken into account in these workplaces.

Dincer also said:Cost of Living Indexannounced that they are also working on a new index with a special scope called ”.