Amid the economic crisis, people have started eating less, using their cars and heating their homes less, a new survey by the Metropoll company showed.
In the survey conducted in February, 50.3 percent of the respondents said, “I reduced my meals,” 31.9 percent said “I am hungry sometimes” and 61.8 percent said “I stopped eating meat.”
Also, 53.7 percent of the respondents said they don’t heat their homes and wear thicker clothes and 57.9 percent said they wash their clothes less than before.
Three Scourges of Turkish Economy: Unemployment, Inflation, and External Deficit
Some 62.5 percent of the respondents who stated that they have a car said they stopped using their cars.
Food and fuel prices have sharply increased in Turkey since December, with the official inflation rate rising to a two-decade record of 61.1 percent in March.
The vicious cycle of higher inflation and fixed disposable incomes turning poverty into hunger is also confirmed by other surveys, like Aksoy Research Agency, which found that more than 68% of participants had to reduce the quality and quantity of foods they purchase for the traditional fast-breaking supper in Ramadan.
Children from low-income neighbourhoods in Turkey increasingly go to school hungry, which stunts their growth and slows their mental development, daily BirGün reported on Saturday citing experts in education.
A 2020 study by the Education Ministry showed that children in the country were only good at speaking their native language, while reading comprehension levels remained extremely low. Only 0.05 percent of students were able to answer all 20 multiple-choice questions correctly, while the average was found to be 10.63 correct answers. Majority of students clustered around 6 and 20 points for writing on a scale of 36 points, BirGün said.
While recently the Erdogan administration began to admit that rising inflation is hurting economic well-being, it has no remedies except to council patience. Finance Minister Nurettin Nebati told the press that inflation will start dropping in November, while President Erdogan claims the arrival of summer will reduce produce prices. He also claims that Turkey’s neutrality between Russia and Ukraine will allow the country to import food “cheaply”.
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