Dear readers,

We are together with the 49th issue of our magazine.

While the supply bottlenecks due to Covid-19 continue to stir up price increases worldwide, the fight against inflation, which has become the problem of the whole world, is shaking the economies. High prices on many products, from energy to food, are increasing inflation in many countries.

The multidimensional turmoil created by the coronavirus in the world causes an inflation panic similar to the one in the 1970s. While the economies that have been severely damaged by the pandemic are trying to recover, they are also struggling with the energy crisis, supply problems and high inflation.

Even in countries with zero inflation, there are increases due to raw material prices. Many countries have witnessed the highest inflation figures of the last 10 to 40 years. In the US in January, the consumer price index reached 6.8 percent annually, reaching a 39-year high.

The price increases in Europe, particularly in energy and food products, brought the annual inflation in the Euro Zone to the highest level since 1997. Annual inflation in Germany is 5.2 percent, the highest level since 1992. 

The situation in Turkey is no exception. In January, we saw the highest inflation rate of the last 19 years with 36.08 percent. In addition to the pandemic, yield declines due to drought also had significant effects on food inflation. Turkey initiated an import campaign to prevent product supply-induced inflation, especially due to drought. In 2021, we imported 7,820 thousand tons of bread wheat, 319 thousand tons of durum wheat, 2,107 thousand tons of corn and 2,174 thousand tons of barley. Last year, we exported 3 million tons of flour, 1,365 thousand tons of pasta and 238 thousand tons of bulgur. We earned 785 million dollars from pasta export. 

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann stated that the global high course of inflation will slow down within the upcoming 1 or 2 years.

Hope to meet you in our next issue…