Turkey's consumer price index rose below expectations by 1.44 percent in October, with annual inflation decreasing to 7.16 percent, according to the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) on Thursday.
This is the second month in a row that the rate has gone down. Yearly inflation was 7.16 percent in October compared to 7.28 percent last September and 7.58 percent in October 2015, Turkstat said.
Monthly inflation was 1.44 percent in October over the previous month, easily beating forecasts of 1.62 percent.
The median estimate of the inflation expectation survey prepared by Anadolu Agency's Finance Desk was 1.62 percent on a monthly basis and 7.35 percent on an annual basis.
The highest monthly increase was 10.43 percent in clothing and footwear category, while the highest monthly decrease was recorded as 1.03 percent in recreation and culture.
"In October 2016, the indices rose for transportation by 2 percent, for food and non-alcoholic beverages by 1.76 percent, for hotels, cafes and restaurants by 0.70 percent, and for furnishing and household equipment by 0.59 percent." Turkstat said.
The top sub-indices of yearly consumer price inflation on an annual basis were alcoholic beverages and tobacco, which rose by 22.61 percent.
However, HalkInvest Chief Economist Banu Kıvcı Tokalı said the downward trend might change in the remaining two months of the year.
"We saw an upside movement which we had forecasted in food prices, especially in unprocessed foods. And also [we] feel the after effects of depreciation of Turkish lira in auto and household goods," Tokalı said.
About the next two months, he said: "We expect annual inflation to tick upside and we [expect to] preserve our 7.9 percent year-end forecast. The decline in core inflation figure is also positive but we see it to stick to [an] increasing trend in coming months," she added.