Prices rose in the new year: From bread to housing, everything has been hiked

A large segment of society, from minimum wage earners to retirees and private sector employees, has been caught in a storm of price hikes on all payments and expenditures as of January 1, 2025, even before their adjusted 2025 salaries have reached their pockets.

Turkey entered 2025 with a 43.93% Revaluation Rate increase on taxes and fines, a 7.56% Special Consumption Tax (ÖTV) hike on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, and a series of consecutive price increases ranging from electricity to water, and rent to fuel.

LUNCH IS 500 TL

According to the news in Sözcü, price adjustments have begun as of the new year in restaurants and eateries, which have been among the inflation champions of the last 2 years.

With the implementation of the minimum wage and automatic tax hikes, restaurants have increased their prices, with lunch meals seeing hikes between 10% and 30%.

The price of a 100-gram doner wrap and a drink, which was 350 TL in December 2024, rose to 410 TL with the new year, marking a 17% increase. Similarly, a menu consisting of fried anchovies and salad without a drink at a chain restaurant, which was 394 TL in December 2024, rose to 439 TL as of January with an 11% hike.

The price of a hamburger menu, one of the most preferred options for lunch, rose from 427 TL to 562 TL in one month.

With these prices, the amount an employee, especially white-collar workers, needs to spend for lunch has exceeded 500 TL. Large carboy water bottles, a basic necessity for citizens in metropolitan areas, also received their share of this price hike storm.

A 19-liter carboy of water ordered through online applications, which was 114.90 TL in December, rose to 129.90 TL today with a 13.15% increase.

PROJECT ANNOUNCED, HOUSING PRICES HIKED BY 500 THOUSAND TL

The rise in rent and housing prices, which has been the main agenda of the last 3 years, also climbed in a single day, especially with the announced social housing project. While inflation in housing reached an annual rate of 63.09% in 2024, it was noted that prices on listing websites increased by 500 thousand TL in a single day following the announcement by Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz that action would be taken for social housing projects.

NATURAL GAS CONNECTION FEES INCREASED

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar announced that they might make a one-time adjustment to electricity and natural gas tariffs during the year, taking inflation into account. Apart from this, with a decision published in the Official Gazette, hikes ranging from 43.65% to 77.96% were made to connection and service fees related to natural gas services.

In addition to these, a series of price hikes rained down on dozens of items in markets, primarily bread, as well as on basic necessities ranging from cigarettes and alcohol to fuel.