ISTANBUL (Al Jazeera) – On a sunny afternoon this week in Istanbul’s Uskudar neighborhood, retiree Niazi Toprak sat on a bench reading the newspaper as he waited for a fresh delivery of bread to arrive. Joining him were dozens of other people who had also lined up at the nearby kiosk belonging to the city’s subsidized bread program.
Istanbul Halk Ekmek, or “Public Bread”, sells a 250g (8.8 oz) baguette for 1.25 Turkish liras ($0.09) – cheaper than at nearby bakeries, where prices start at 2.50 liras ($0.18).
Though the difference is measured in pennies, the savings add up for Toprak and many other Istanbulites who queue at more than 1,500 such kiosks across the city each day.
“Everything is getting expensive, from your food to your bread, from your shirt down to the socks you wear,” the 71-year-old Toprak told Al Jazeera.
A former truck driver and produce wholesaler who retired five years ago, he recently moved in with his children because money is tight.
“My retirement social security only brings in 800 liras ($56) a month, so that’s not enough these days to live alone on,” Toprak said. “We are four people in the house, and our rent is 2,000 liras ($140 a month). Each of us eats at least one loaf a day, so I plan on buying four loaves from here. You need to save every bit of money you can these days.”
The Turkish lira has lost roughly 48 percent of its value against the United States dollar this year, experiencing an all-out crash in November.
That same month, Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to 21.3 percent, according to government statistics. But critics of the government doubt even that eye-watering calculation, pointing to what appear to be far larger increases in the prices of food, rent and energy.
The Istanbul municipality, currently headed by the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, has put out its own figures showing the cost of living in the city has increased more than 50 percent in a year. According to the Istanbul Statistics Office, the price of wheat has gone up 109 percent, sunflower oil 137 percent, toilet paper 90 percent, sugar 90 percent, and natural gas 102 percent.
Thousands of people took the streets of Istanbul on Monday to protest against the Turkish government’s failed economic policies amid rising inflation and depreciating currency.
Protesters took part in the rally in Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city as well as its cultural and financial hub, in the first such major demonstration.
Critics blame the Recep Tayyip Erdogan government’s regressive economic policies for the freefall of the Turkish currency lira and an astonishing rise in inflation.
They question the official figures, accusing the National Bureau of Statistics (TUIK) of downplaying the poor health of the country’s economy.