Restaurants in some Turkish holiday towns are sitting half-empty in peak tourist season, as many locals find it’s cheaper to holiday in neighboring Greece than stay and eat in one of their own country’s world-famous resorts.
Angry citizens have taken to social media to share their bills, including the equivalent of $640 for food and drinks for five people in Bodrum and $30 for five scoops of ice cream in Cesme. Meanwhile from Mediterranean Greek islands just a few kilometers away, their fellow Turks boast they’re paying far less than prices at home.
“There’s a huge difference between the service and product quality, as well as prices here and there,” said Murat Yavuz, a retired Turkish banker who regularly visits Greece. “Restaurants here have used inflation as a pretext to push up prices.”
Restaurant and hotel prices rose by an average 91% in June from a year earlier, topping already eye-watering headline inflation of 71.6%. The sector constitutes a third of the services economy that the central bank has highlighted as a particular cause of concern in its fight against spiraling prices.
Looks like Erdy’s fiscal policy choices have come home to roost. Meanwhile Greece’s economy is doing great
I’m sure we’re not very far from Erdogan blaming a minority and maybe stirring up a small war.
There’s a manual somewhere; “Despotism for Dummies” I think.
He’s been doing that with the Kurds for years now
I’m sure another mysteriously failed coup was in the works any day now
That dude ain’t never been bout no war. He’s about being a loudmouth and being lavishly comfortable.
Isn’t Greece pushing a 6 day work week though? It’s certainly significantly better than Turkey’s but having to push that does not make it seem great.
Companies may offer employees a sixth working day for 40% more pay, 115% on Sundays and holidays. Maximum weekly hours are 48.
They’re saying it’s a push to combat overtime moonlighting and human trafficking (both an issue in Greece), from another perspective it makes their laws similar to the German ones. Modulo the 40% for the sixth day, our basic rules here are “max 8 hours a day and not on Sundays”, that’s also six days and also 48 hours. Short-term 60 hours are possible if the 24-week average still stays at 48.
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How does inflation in Turkish Lira cause the Dollar price equivalent to go up so much? Should the Lira not be devaluing against the Dollar at a rate similar to its inflation?
If not, doesn’t that actually indicate a strong Turkish economy?
Just anecdotally, but Hungarian prices went way up above the inflation that the exchange rates changing would justify. There are a few explanations why it happened in Hungary.
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One is prices are getting “unanchored” and are easier to gouge. Someone used to a loaf of bread costing 400 in local currency will buy one loaf for 1200 as easily as 800. It’s basically nobody knows by habit what the prices are any more.
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One other explanation goes that the uncertainties of the economy get baked in to the price. So if the bread was made for 200, but is now made for 400, the trader will price based on the assumption the input prices might double again, pushing the risk to the customer.
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Yet another explanation is that since prices went up, fewer people buy the same goods, so prices must go up again to have businesses stay afloat. So basically there is an inverse economies of scale effect happening.
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Finally, in these countries it happens very frequently that parallel economies emerge, and societal divides widen. Point is, there is a group of people who get paid by foreign companies in foreign currency, and they earn much better than most that have been affected by inflation, and more and more of the economy is targeting them exclusively.
IDK really, as on the one hand I’m not an economist, only pointing it out that this is not the only place and time this happened.
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Inflation is not the only thing that goes into currency valuation. Future expectation also comes into play. Basically the situation is expected to get worse
Wouldn’t assuming the Lira will drop more mean people would pay less for it though? So would make it worth less?
Those are the social media rage bait prices. Lots of places have prices 1/3 or less
Edit: That’s not to say it’s cheap, but there are cheaper (and still great!) options than the quoted amount
Edit 2: If you’re downvoting, please also tell me how $128 meals and $6 ice cream are in any way the norm.
Good thing that there’s no ongoing historic tension between the countries that could complicate this already fraught situation! Hold on, gotta take this call.
picks up phone and listens for a while to shreds, you say?
I’d only want to go there for a date in Constantinople.
Dates and figs and almonds
DEUS VULT you to go for that date
She’ll be waiting for you in Istambul.
The images of menus from ~3 years ago have prices that line up with the average monthly wages. The recent photos of menus have the prices blanked out.
The “new” price of ~850 TRY for a single serving is over 25% of the average monthly wages (2900-3200). The site providing wages doesn’t specify if that’s the average earnings before or after tax either. Prices on older menus are more like ~50 TRY for the same item.
850TRY is currently about $26 USD, or about $.03 to a lira. Holy crap, I was there about 10 years ago and a lira was about $.50!
average monthly wages (2900-3200)
I’m not sure where you found this but it’s severely outdated. Average wages were around 10000₺ in 2022 (probably mean) and the minimum wage has trpiled since then.
And I’m not sure what kind of a meal the 850₺ number is for, but it’s definitely not what you pay for an ordinary meal outside. In Ankara usual prices are between 500₺ and 150₺. Prices do balloon when you go to touristy places or places that serve hard drinks tho.
Thanks for the correction! The site I was using was a site for English speakers considering moving to Turkey. It was difficult to verify with my lacking language skills.
The 850₺ was the average cost I could find while poking about restaurant listing in Istanbul so I was likely getting touristy places. It was very difficult to find a place with prices on their recent menu photos or websites as well. I suspect the places I was finding were more upscale/touristy than local.
It could also be that İstanbul is more expensive, keep hearing that
This is what happens when you allow Putin-adjacent fascists to remain in power.
Why inflation in Turkey is high?
The regime there decided to devalue the currency through several policies.
Why Turkey’s currency is crashing after Erdogan got reelected | AP News
The impact of exchange rates on Turkish imports and exports - ScienceDirect
Does inflation increase export? Case study Turkey
Turkey’s economy is paying the price for years of policy mistakes
One goal of such policies is to turn the country’s economy toward exports, such as the model used by many “developing countries” to manufacture cheaply (for shit wages) and export a lot. As you can imagine, that’s not compatible with a consumer economy (i.e. a nice service sector). When you devalue your currency (or just have inflation unintentionally), you make imports more expensive. For many countries, one of the biggest drivers is energy imports. Hungary is finding that out now too. If you need a harsher example, read about Lebanon in recent years (as if the threat of Israel invading isn’t enough).
The above is/was correct, but for the last 1-2 years they actually flipped it around, artificially valuing the currency against USD, EUR while not keeping inflation under check. The inflation in TRY has been >100% for the last few years, while the TRY/USD parity barely moved. So it means that the prices are approximately at NYC levels for e.g. restaurants, and is shockingly expensive for most tourists, let alone the local people.
Stop going to turkey for vacation. Let them figure out erdoganomics without foreign money.
Sounds like Erdogan is shagging Liz Truss again
Holy fuck. I have a friend in Turkey I haven’t talked to in a few years. I should hit him up and see if he needs anything. I’m sure this isn’t just a restaurant and tourism issue.
Knowing that my username happens to also be a neighborhood in Greece, makes me wonder what kind of local food you can get in Kolanaki… 🤤
I went to Istanbul in March of 2023 and it was pretty affordable. Started planning for another trip in May this year and didn’t get past looking at hotels. The prices were absolutely ridiculous. Went to Thailand instead.
