Turkey's inflation rate hits 6 month low

Turkey's inflation rate stood at 7. 32 percent in November 2013, hitting a record low in the past six months, official data showed Tuesday. The consumer price index (CPI) moved up 0.01 percent over the previous month, according to data released by Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat). The prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products increased most on an annual basis by 13.55 percent followed by the prices of the education sector by 10.06 percent and food and non- alcoholic beverages by 9.77 percent. Although the November index was the lowest figure since May, the averaged inflation rate of the first 11 months stood at around 7.5 percent, far above the government's initial goal of five percent. Analysts attribute the high level of the inflation in 2013 to the rising taxes, ongoing easing monetary policy as well as the decreased Lira exchange rate during the year. But the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development offered a upbeat forecast for Turkey's inflation in 2014, saying it would decline to around six percent. Enditem