Olive oil cheaper than olives, rent 6,000 TL, private school cheaper than water...
Economist Alaattin Aktaş calculated the item prices that TÜİK does not disclose when determining inflation. The prices of goods and services in the calculation seem to come from another country.
12punto
Yesterday, just as global financial markets were experiencing serious volatility and this global hurricane had hit the Borsa Istanbul, the July inflation figures announced by TÜİK were welcomed by President Erdoğan and Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek. Citizens, meanwhile, wrote and drew on social media (on platforms not yet shut down) that the reality they encountered in markets and grocery stores did not align with the announced monthly inflation increase rate of 3.23 percent.
Alaattin Aktaş, a columnist for Ekonomim.com, also took a scalpel to this issue. Aktaş, who wrote on July 8 about which prices TÜİK based its calculations on for 100 items of goods and services while calculating June inflation, this time narrowed the list of items to 75, with some remaining the same as in June and some being new.
Sharing prices from the list by stating, "The CPI, announced as 3.23 percent for July, was calculated by taking into account the prices of these 75 items of goods and services included in the appendix of my article," there are very striking details in Aktaş's piece:
TÜİK REPORTS FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Because according to TÜİK, you can get a doctor's examination for 34 lira and find shelter by paying 6,000 lira in rent. Again, according to TÜİK, the price of a kilogram of olives in July is 136 lira. Let's say you found olives at this price, but you will be surprised to see that olive oil is even cheaper than olives, sold at 116 lira per liter.
According to Aktaş, one of the most striking prices among those TÜİK took into account in its July CPI calculation is the private university tuition fee. While the annual fee in some departments of some universities has exceeded one million lira, and the average fee is around 600,000 lira; according to TÜİK, the private university tuition fee is not even 200,000 lira, but 199,000 lira.
University dormitory prices are also very attractive, rising to only 457 lira in July. Communication bills are also from another world: according to TÜİK, the internet fee is 217 lira, and the mobile phone call fee is 218 lira.