Turkish annual inflation climbed below forecasts but still jumped to a new 24-year high in September, official data showed on Monday.

The yearly consumer price index (CPI) rose 83.45% last month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, up from 80.2% in August. It marks the highest annual figure seen in July 1998, when it stood at 85.3%.

Month-over-month, consumer prices rose 3.08%, the institute said, compared to a Reuters poll forecast of 3.8%. Annually, consumer price inflation was forecast to be 84.63%.

The domestic producer price index was up 4.78% month-over-month in September for an annual rise of 151.50%, the data showed.

Countries worldwide have been grappling with an increase in food and fuel prices stoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Türkiye is known to be particularly vulnerable due to its external energy dependence.

"We are going through a period in which the global economic crisis, deepened by energy and commodity price increases triggered by the pandemic and war, has deeply affected all economies, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a televised address on Monday.

"We will build the century of Türkiye together, hopefully by overcoming the inflation issue," Erdoğan said.

The sharpest increases in annual prices were in the transportation sector, at 117.66%, followed by food and nonalcoholic drink prices at 93%, according to the statistical institute’s data. Housing prices climbed by more than 80%.

The government has said inflation will fall and the lira will stabilize with its economic program prioritizing low rates to boost production and exports in a bid to achieve a current account surplus – Türkiye’s transactions with the rest of the world.

Erdoğan has repeatedly voiced his opposition to higher interest rates, which he says only makes "the rich richer and the poor poorer." He often calls high rates the "mother of all evil."

He last week reiterated his strong opposition to high borrowing costs, saying he had advised the central bank to lower its key policy rate further at its upcoming meetings.

The Turkish central bank surprised markets as it cut its policy rate by 200 basis points to 12% in the last two months.

The bank had embarked on a rate-cutting cycle more than a year ago as it lowered its one-week repo rate by 500 basis points to 14%, where it had left it steady in the first seven months of this year.

Erdoğan said he expects the central bank’s monetary policy committee to deliver another cut to its benchmark rate in October and bring it down to single digits by year-end, insisting that the reduced borrowing costs will help tame inflation in the new year.

"You have a president right now whose biggest fight, whose biggest enemy is (high) interest rates," he said in a speech last week. "We’ve reduced the interest rate down to 12%. Is it enough? It isn’t enough. It has to go down further."

"I hope that after the new year, this inflation will come down due to the low interest rate. I believe that this inflation will come down with low interest. That’s what I’m pushing for," he added.

The government has introduced several relief measures to help cushion the blow from rising inflation, including increasing the minimum wage in December and in July, announcing a 25% cap on rent increases and reducing taxes on utility bills. It also has announced a major housing project for low-income families.

The government sees inflation falling to 65% by the end of the year and 24.9% by the end of 2023.

The central bank in July raised its year-end inflation forecast to 60.4% and saw it peaking near 90% in the autumn.