Turkish inflation slows to 39.05% in February, below forecasts

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkish annual consumer price inflation slowed to 39.05% in February, official data showed on Monday, lower than a Reuters poll forecast and sustaining a downtrend since it peaked at around 75% in May last year.

A Turkish regulation lowering patients' co-payments at public hospitals recently helped to rein in price growth, prompting some analysts to trim their February inflation expectations.

Monthly inflation stood at 2.27%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, also below forecasts. In January, inflation had stood at 5.03% on a monthly basis and 42.12% on an annual basis.

"We expect the steady decline in inflation to continue thanks to fiscal and income policies that support the disinflation process and the improvement in expectations," Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on X.

"We will resolutely implement our policies to achieve price stability, which will permanently improve the purchasing power and income distribution of our citizens," he added.

Annual inflation in the key food and non-alcoholic drinks sector was lower than the headline rate, at 35.11%. Price hikes were led by a 94.9% rise in education prices, while housing prices were up 70.81%.

The lira firmed slightly to 36.4775 against the dollar on Monday, from a close of 36.5310 on Friday.

In a Reuters poll, monthly inflation had been forecast to dip to 2.85% in February, driven by the regulatory changes reducing on co-payments at public hospitals, with the annual rate seen falling to 39.90%.

The central bank cut its policy rate to 45% from 50% in December, having kept it steady in the preceding eight months, and is set to hold its next policy-setting meeting on Thursday.

Previously, the bank raised its key rate 4,150 basis points to cool inflation in a shift to orthodox policy, after years of low rates aimed at fostering growth.

The domestic producer price index rose 2.12% month-on-month in February for an annual rise of 25.21%, the data showed.

(Reporting by Canan Sevgili; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Huseyin Hayatsever and Gareth Jones)