Food price inflation in Turkey seven times the OCED average

Consumer food price inflation has reached 93.6 percent on an annualized basis in July in Turkey, about seven times the OECD average of 12.59 percent, daily Sözcü said, citing a report by the organization.

Monday August 01 2022 12:20 pm

Duvar English

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has prepared a report about its 38 member countries' support for the agricultural sector and the sector's development in the last 20 years.

According to the data, while the support given to the agricultural sector was 3.8 percent of the national income in 2000 in Turkey, this ratio decreased to 1.6 percent in 2020, daily Sözcü reported. As a result of this, the share of agriculture in national income decreased from 10 percent to 6.2 percent in the last 20 years in Turkey. On the other hand, the share of agriculture in national income in OECD countries increased from 2.9 percent to 4.9 percent on average during this time period.

Data on export and import figures also revealed how Turkey's agricultural economy is faring worse as the share of the country's agricultural imports in total imports increased from 5.9 percent to 7.7 over the last 20 years. The share of agricultural exports in total exports, on the other hand, decreased from 13.2 percent to 11.8 percent in the same period.

In the last five years, the price of fertilizers and pesticides saw a hike of respectively seven-fold and three-fold in Turkey, but the support payment provided to farmers increased by a mere two-fold in the same period, daily Sözcü said.

The report also shared statistics with regards to the food price inflation in the OECD countries. Accordingly, while the year-on-year inflation for food prices reached 12.59 percent in July on average in the OECD countries, it was recorded as 93.9 percent for Turkey.