Türkiye’s annual inflation rate slowed further in August to 52% after reaching 61.8% in July, official data showed this week.

The Central Bank began to raise interest rates last year in an effort to battle soaring prices, after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dropped his opposition to orthodox monetary policy.

Türkiye’s annual inflation rate reached a decades-long high of 85% in October 2022. It fell to 38.2% in June 2023 before rising again. It reached 75% in May this year but started to fall in June.

The biggest price rises in August were in education, at 120.8%, housing at 101.5%, and hotels and restaurants at 67.7%, according to the Turkish statistics institute. On a month-to-month comparison, consumer prices rose 2.5% in August.

A central bank survey of investors has forecast that inflation would reach 43.3 percent by late 2024. The government avoided raising the minimum wage in July in efforts to tame inflation. It had raised it in the previous two years.

Independent economists say Turkish inflation is higher than official estimates and has reached 90.35%.