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Turkish Food Fight Spreads With Fines, Raids as Inflation Stings

Turkey's Inflation Police Guards What's Left of Price Stability
Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg
Updated on

Turkey has found that fighting words alone aren’t enough to deter the people it blames for runaway food inflation.

After weeks of bashing those deemed price-gougers as traitors and even terrorists, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party is backing up threats with deeds. Fines are on the way after raids of wholesale food markets in five provinces on Feb. 6 uncovered “exorbitant” price increases of up to 800 percent for certain items, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said on Sunday.