To understand the state of the country, listen more to “Brother Sadık”...

After living away from her homeland for 22 years, Hafize Gaye Erkan, who returned to Istanbul to take the seat of Central Bank Governor, admitted in an interview, “Can Istanbul be more expensive than Manhattan? We couldn't find a house in Istanbul, so we settled in with my parents and are staying with them.”

Following this admission by Ms. Hafize Gaye, which dropped like a bombshell on the agenda, I have no doubt that the phones at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey will be jammed on Monday with calls from landlords. She will find a suitable house in no time, and her rental problem will be solved. After all, which landlord wouldn't be proud to have the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey as their tenant?  

It did cross my mind, though: doesn't the state have official residences? If the Central Bank Governor of this country is also experiencing a housing problem, then woe to us. Fortunately, her mother solved the problem. But what about those whose mothers also live in rented houses? Or those whose mothers are no longer alive?

My aunt, who is nearing 80, moved from Ankara to a rented apartment in Feneryolu, Istanbul, after my uncle passed away. My aunt's only income is the rent she receives from her apartment in Ankara and the pension she was granted after my uncle's death. My 80-year-old aunt's landlord demanded an exorbitant rent increase last month. He is asking for 40 thousand TL for a 2-bedroom apartment. In our legal system, there isn't even a definition for an exorbitant rent increase. At her age, my aunt is going to be in a legal battle with her landlord! The trauma that the housing problem has caused my 80-year-old aunt has overshadowed the pain of losing her life partner of 50 years.  

Ms. Gaye; you ask, “Can Istanbul be more expensive than Manhattan?” It is not just Istanbul; rent increases in Izmir, Antalya, Ankara, and all of Turkey's major cities have surpassed and overtaken Europe and the USA.

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Economics professor and columnist Güngör Uras wrote for years about the consumer's “Aunt Ayşe.” He explained that the inflation experienced deeply by the public is not the same as the data from TUIK (Turkish Statistical Institute). He said, “Our Aunt Ayşe's inflation and the state's inflation calculation do not resemble each other.”

At the root of the difference between the state's inflation and Aunt Ayşe's inflation lies the distribution of TUIK's total expenditures among spending groups.

According to Güngör Uras;

“TUIK presents an average consumption expenditure distribution table for the whole country without being able to distinguish between east-west, small city-large city, or poor-wealthy.

For example, the share of food in total consumption expenditure across Turkey is determined to be 24 percent. This is a rate determined for Turkey as a whole. The poor segment allocates 60-70 percent of their total consumption expenditure to food. For the wealthy, the share of food expenditure drops to as low as 15 percent. Therefore, the increase in food prices weighs much more heavily on lower-income groups.”

Aunt Ayşe spends money on about 50 of the 409 items that go into the “average” inflation calculation. Food expenditure, rent, fuel, electricity, and minibus and bus fares are the primary expenses. In food expenditure, legumes, fruits, vegetables, oil, and meat are important. These are the high-demand foods consumed by the lower-income group whose prices have increased the most.

Your apartment superintendent, Brother Sadık, reminded me of Güngör Uras's consumer Aunt Ayşe. “Brother Sadık,” who says “prices haven't come down,” is saying the most accurate thing. Because inflation hits the low-income earners the hardest. In Turkey, one in four children goes to school hungry. We are talking about 1.3 million children! I know teachers who say, “I have students who feel faint from hunger.” The public, the state, cannot and should not make savings from children's nutrition. The 2022 report of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that one in five children cannot eat at least once a week because they do not have the money.

How can a people who are struggling with deep poverty and have been brought to a state where they cannot meet their most basic needs such as nutrition, health, and housing be happy?

One day when you ask “Brother Sadık” about prices, also ask him, “Are you happy?”…

To understand the state of the country, listen more to “Brother Sadık”…