Turkey increased minimum wage due to inflation

(Patria) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday announced the third major increase in the minimum wage this year, in an attempt to curb a historic jump in consumer prices ahead of key elections.

More than 40 percent of Turkey's workforce earns the minimum wage, AFP reports. Erdogan has relied on the support of the working class to come to power nearly two decades ago and will need it again to secure a new mandate in elections expected by next June.

But the poor in Turkey have been hit hardest by an economic crisis that has pushed the official annual inflation rate to 85 percent. The Turkish leader said on Thursday that the country will increase the monthly wage to a minimum of 8,500 lira ($455). The minimum wage in December 2021 was 2,826 lira, which was then just under $300. Last January it was increased to 4,253 lira, and then to 5,500 in July.

Erdogan promised on Thursday that inflation would slow to 20 percent by the end of next year.

"We will witness a rapid decline in the inflation rate starting this month," said the Turkish president.