Ankara announces ambitious measures in bid to ease skyrocketing food prices

Turkey's Food Committee has decided to take a number of measures to raise storage and monitoring standards and to diversify foreign trade dynamics and marketing methods in order to curb a persistent rise in food prices, which have played a key role in pushing up the country's inflation rate. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, who heads the committee, told state-run Anadolu Agency that the committee held a meeting late on May 5, two days after the April inflation data was released. 

The annual inflation rate reached its highest level in around nine years as a result of a weak Turkish Lira in several sectors, according to official data released on May 3. 

Consumer prices in Turkey rose 11.87 percent year-on-year in April from 11.29 percent in March, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed. Annual consumer price inflation was also at the highest level since October 2008. April's consumer price inflation was driven by food prices, which rose 1.23 percent from a month earlier, according to official data. 

Şimşek said maintaining the inflation rate at single-digits was a priority for the government, adding that highly fluctuating food prices had a negative impact both on the inflation outlook and its predictability. 

A number of short-term measures to ease the rising prices of unprocessed foods have been defined during the committee meeting, he added. 

The latest situation regarding some medium-term and long-term structural issues was also assessed, Şimşek also stated. 

Şimşek said a series of foreign trade measures in unprocessed food products will be taken by considering supply continuity in the domestic market, describing this step as "one of the key measures on the road to averting...