Holiday bonus has melted away: In 2018 you could sacrifice an animal, today you can only buy 4 kilos of ground meat

With Eid al-Adha approaching, retirees are preparing for the holiday under the shadow of financial hardship. The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has set the cost for a proxy sacrifice at 18,000 TL domestically and 7,000 TL abroad this year. However, the prices of sacrificial animals at livestock markets start at 30,000 TL.

In 2018, the picture was very different. That year, when the holiday bonus was implemented for the first time, it was paid at 1,000 TL, while the Diyanet's domestic proxy sacrifice cost was 850 TL and the international cost was 625 TL. Retirees were able to afford a sacrifice with the bonus they received and even give pocket money to their grandchildren with the remaining amount.

At this point, the holiday bonus paid to retirees this year has remained at 4,000 TL. However, the price of ground meat has risen to as much as 1,000 TL per kilogram. In other words, a retiree can now buy at most 4 kilograms of ground meat with their holiday bonus; buying a sacrificial animal has become impossible for most.

Although the growth and inflation figures announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) may appear positive, the purchasing power in the citizens' pockets continues to decrease every year. Especially those with fixed and low incomes state that they are having difficulty even accessing basic necessities. With the approach of the holiday, sacrificial meat, which once had a place on the family's traditional table, has now become a distant dream for many retirees.