Sawt Falasteen - Turkey's inflation rate hits fresh 24-year high

Turkey's monetary policymakers are bucking the global trend of central bank raising interest rates to combat inflation, as high borrowing rates cool down the economy and prices.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has focused on growth ahead of a general election in June, has repeatedly railed against higher rates, calling them his "biggest enemy".

The country's central bank has followed his philosophy, lowering its policy rate to 12 percent from 13 percent last month.

Erdogan has called for more rate cuts at the bank's next policy meeting on October 20.

The TUIK state statistics agency said Monday that consumer prices rose by 83.45 percent in September on an annual basis, up from 80.2 percent in August.

The Turkish lira hit a new record low of 18.56 against the dollar following the announcement.

But opposition leaders and many Turks no longer trust official government data.

A respected monthly study released by independent economists from Turkey's ENAG research institute also showed prices soaring -- at a much higher rate than the one reported by the state statistics agency.

ENAG said the official annual rate of consumer price increases reached 186.27 percent in September, compared to 181.37 percent in August.

D.AbuRida--SF-PST