Prices in Turkey are surging. But by how much?

EARLIER THIS summer Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced that he had asked his central-bank governor, the fourth he has appointed in two years, to begin slashing interest rates. Mr Erdogan even provided a date for the start of the easing cycle. “We need to see July, August for interest rates to start coming down,” he said. He may have to wait much longer. A week ahead of the bank’s monetary-policy meeting on July 14th, the country’s statistical authority (TUIK) revealed that inflation had swollen to 17.5% in June, beating even the most pessimistic forecasts. That is more than three times the central bank’s inflation target of 5%, and close to the benchmark lending rate, 19%. In the event, the bank had no choice but to keep rates unchanged. It will almost certainly do the same in August.