Inflation dynamics and monetary policy strategy: some prospects for the Turkish economy

Abstract

This paper analyzes the dynamics of inflation in the Turkish economy, which has experienced increasingly high levels of inflation over the last 30 years. By conducting a Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis, the variance decomposition (VDC) and the impulse response functions (IRF) show that the relatively high and inertial nature of inflation mainly stems from the increases in public sector prices and the depreciation of the Turkish lira. On the other hand, the Granger causality tests as well as the VDC and IRF demonstrate that high prices have not been as a result of an expansionary monetary policy. These results together with the previous results show that inertial inflation is not a monetary phenomenon in Turkey, but rather an outcome of a political misconduct, which therefore shows the fiscal dominance.