Inflation and budget reaction from KESK: 'Even TÜİK's disguised data cannot hide the truth'

The Confederation of Public Employees' Unions (KESK), in its statement following TÜİK's October inflation data, stated that the purchasing power of public employees and retirees had declined and criticized the economic and budget policies of the government. In the statement, the following was noted:

"Even TÜİK's make-up data cannot hide the truth! In October, inflation was 2.58 percent, annual inflation was 29.77 percent. While four-month inflation reached 8.28 percent, the 7 percent raise given to public workers and retirees in July has already eroded. Moreover, even according to TÜİK data, annual inflation in education has reached 48.86 percent, health inflation has reached 43.29 percent, and housing inflation has reached 43.29 percent. It reached 40.24. TurkStat data does not even reach half of the real inflation we are experiencing. The price hikes in fuel products in the last 3 days alone show that the price of autogas (LPG) per liter increased by 9 TL (percent) last night, following the increase of 4 liras and 10 cents for gasoline and 3 liras and 60 cents for diesel on November 1. 23) raise was made.

They increased the 2026 inflation target, announced as 16 percent during the collective bargaining process, to 28 percent, and the 2027 inflation target, announced as 9 percent, to 21 percent. Those who increase inflation targets as "revised" expect us to be content with a 5+4 percent salary increase in 2027. According to BES-AR data, the hunger limit of a civil servant family of four is 49 thousand 809 TL, the poverty line is 125 thousand 744 TL, and the cost of living of an employee living alone is 81 thousand 783 TL! We have been talking for days about the fund-stock market robbery of hundreds of thousands of citizens' savings, the "profiteer of the century". In fact, we have been experiencing derivatives of this exploitation and robbery for years, with inflation turning into a kind of tax and the budgets set before us every year. The discussions on the 2027 budget proposal, which is the last of these, continue in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

"Government" We allocated the largest share of the budget to education. Even though they say, "This budget will be a welfare and transformation budget," every figure in the budget proposal proves that these words are nothing more than heroism. In the 2027 budget proposal, revenues, expenses and taxes are increased by 44 percent, while salary increases are limited to the inflation target of 21 percent. The entire tax burden falls on us, from indirect taxes such as VAT and SCT to the Income Tax deducted from our salaries at the source. Almost half of the collected taxes go to interest, armament, treasury guarantees of PPP projects and capital. It is reported that not enough resources are allocated to education, health, employment, social security and poverty prevention.

There will be no "good news" for workers, public workers or retirees from this system in which the country is robbed and destroyed by those who feed on sources such as fund-stock market profiteering, interest, incentives, support, tax amnesty and treasury guarantees. The only way out is not by waiting for "good news" from those who created this dark picture, but through the united struggle of the millions who constitute the overwhelming majority of the society, to whom poverty and misery are imposed. "We will continue to fulfill our duty to support this struggle fought shoulder to shoulder by all segments of society that are victims of exploitation and poverty."