İlber Ortaylı criticized that institution with very harsh words

Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı, while a guest on Kafa TV, reacted sharply to the statement that "according to TÜİK, rent in Turkey is 5,884 liras," saying, "Do you think I'm stupid? Forget about here, you would struggle to find a place for 5,800 liras even in Ankara, or even in a small town."

'ABSOLUTELY NOT RELIABLE'

When asked about unemployment and inflation figures, İlber Ortaylı said, "No, it is absolutely not reliable. The pen that TÜİK manipulates does not change the truth. Turkish people are buying fruit and vegetables almost by the piece. I do the same. Many people cannot even afford these products. There are people we provide food aid to. For example, we give olive oil. Even olive oil is now a great luxury for people. Houses are terribly expensive. They are charging 15 thousand in rent for houses in shantytown neighborhoods," he said.

Following Alaattin Aktaş's column regarding the prices in TÜİK's inflation basket, Turkish Statistical Institute President Erhan Çetinkaya made a statement, saying, "The item basket is right where it is; it is not within anyone's authority to hide the item basket. The tables that are not published are the item prices. The item prices announced in the past did not have the quality of an indicator. It requires an extra day of work to publish item prices. For this reason, we no longer publish these prices, which do not carry the quality of an indicator."

Çetinkaya explained the work they do to calculate inflation with the following words:

"To calculate inflation, the consumption basket needs to be determined. We do this by visiting 2 thousand households every month. By the end of the year, we have visited 25 thousand households. Among these households, there are the wealthy, the poor, and those in an average situation. We are conducting a sampling that reflects society as a whole. Based on the spending patterns of these households, it is determined what will be included in the basket and what will not. These goods and services have specific weights. Ultimately, the price changes of these goods and services are multiplied by their weights to calculate an average figure. What we announce every month, both monthly and annually, is a single figure. And last month it came out as 1.64. This includes the price change of gasoline, tomatoes, clothing, dental examinations, and haircuts. Inflation is a calculation where 600 thousand prices are aggregated or reduced to a single index change, a single percentage change."

News Source: 12punto