Towards the Perfect Storm

We are going through such a period that the lethargy of the summer season, the need for a vacation, and the desire to get away from reality for a while have been cut short.

We entered July with slaps in the face in the form of price hikes. A 38% increase in electricity, a 2.5 lira hike in fuel, gasoline, and diesel, and a downpour of hikes in special consumption taxes (ÖTV) and many other things are raining down on us.

But there is no raise for retirees or minimum wage earners! A 19.3% increase has been projected for civil servants and retired civil servants.

While the food expenditure (hunger threshold) required for a family of 4 to eat a healthy, balanced, and sufficient diet has reached 20 thousand lira, 70% of retirees will try to live on a salary of 10 million lira until January 2025.

We are going through such a period that while the public suffers, retirees think twice before buying 1 kilo of meat, and many families cannot go on vacation due to economic difficulties, TUIK announced the June (monthly) inflation rate;

1.64 percent!

Immediately afterward, Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek announced the surprise news on his X account;

“The disinflation process has begun!”

The Palace may have entered a disinflation process, but those living it know that the inflation on the streets has not slowed down. A person's heart is where they feel the pain.

Let us understand the truth from the sentence of Aunt Hatice, who comes to the Antalya Wednesday Market every week to sell what she produces;

“Look, my child,” she said to me.

“Calling someone who has been robbed poor is to exonerate the thief!”

Thanks to those who play with the integrity of numbers, people have become financially literate. Farmers, workers, civil servants, retirees, women, men, the young, and the old are not only unable to dream of the future, but are struggling with the worry of how to make it through the next month. Young people who find the opportunity are fleeing abroad.

The value of a country that does not produce value has become “dishonesty”!

TUIK data does not match ENAG data.

The inflation experienced by the public does not match the announced inflation.

Even Hatice, the market vendor, does not believe in the newly named “disinflation process.”

In the coming days, following the shock hikes, new tax increases are also coming starting August 1st.

Put on your life jackets, dear friends, the perfect storm is approaching…