Ankara police on Thursday detained several members of an leading union protesting what they are calling inaccurate inflation figures in front of the state statistical agency, T24 news site reported. Police intervened on the protest by Birleşik Kamu-İş union in front of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), as the group prepared to read a press release, it said. Among the five members taken into police custody was union chairman Mehmet Balık, it said, with several union members suffering injuries after police used batons to disperse the group. TÜİK has come under scrutiny from the political opposition and some economists over its reporting of inflation data and other figures. Turkey’s annual consumer price inflation accelerated to 73.5 percent in May, according to TÜİK, the highest level since 1998. Price increases in Turkey have gathered momentum after the central bank cut interest rates to 14 percent from 19 percent late last year then kept them unchanged, provoking a sell-off in the lira and a surge in import costs. But critics maintain the rate is much higher, based on the pinch felt by citizens grappling with surging prices. According to the Inflation Research Group (ENAG), an independent organisation established by economists and academics, the real inflation rate in May in the country measured at more than 160 percent, Gerçek Gündem news site reported. Birleşik Kamu-İş on Thursday condemned the attack on its members in a Twitter post, saying that “No power was stronger than the constitution or its citizens.’’
Ahval