Declaring 2024 as 'the year of retirees', Erdoğan hikes pensions amid high inflation

Erdoğan announced pension hikes after a cabinet meeting Tuesday. © TCCB

İSTANBUL – “Number go up” is the title of a new book on cryptocurrencies, and also a fact of life for consumers in Turkey, where prices keep rising after 2023 closed with official annual inflation at about 65 percent last month.

In response, the Turkish government has introduced a series of wage and pension hikes in recent weeks, aiming to align salaries and benefits with rising expenses and rents.

Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the latest hikes Tuesday, upping minimum monthly pensions from 7,500 to 10,000 liras and promising to equalize most pension payments by July before declaring 2024 as 'the year of retirees'.

“After receiving the approval of our parliament, we want to reflect the increases in the salaries of our retirees as soon as possible,” Erdoğan said. “In this way, we’ll make an additional 200 billion lira available to our retirees.”

The hike was lower than some expected, and remains below the hunger threshold, or 14,431 liras as defined last month by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş).

But regardless of size, the pension hike comes about two months before elections – as did the last pension hike in 2023. Combined with recent wage raises, the pre-vote handouts underline the ruling party’s advantages and also limited room to maneuver against high inflationary headwinds, economic and political analysts told Turkey recap.