The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) reported that the reorganization of the examination participation fee paid at official healthcare service providers within the Social Security Institution Health Practices Regulation played a significant role in the limited realization of the monthly inflation in service group. The CBRT published the February Price Developments Report. According to the report, while the annual inflation increased slightly in the energy group, it decreased in other main groups. Basic goods prices fell on a monthly basis, while price increases in other main groups, especially services, weakened compared to January. However, the service group inflation continued to surpass goods. In the food group, processed food prices maintained their strong increase from January, and contrary to seasonal norms, the declining vegetable prices limited food inflation in February. The price increase in the energy group was driven by rising electricity prices due to the transition to the Final Source Supply Tariff (SKTT). While prices moderately rose in durable goods and other basic goods in the basic goods group, continuing significant price drops in the clothing and footwear subgroup led to a decline in group prices. Price increases in the service sector slowed down in February. According to the report, the reorganization of the examination participation fee paid at official healthcare service providers within the Social Security Institution Health Practices Regulation played a significant role in the limited realization of the monthly inflation in the service group. In the Other Services subgroup, the monthly price increase significantly weakened by 2.02%, with health services prices declining due to the rearrangement of the SUT examination participation fee. This development had a downward impact of 0.29 points on consumer inflation in February. Producer price increases weakened compared to the previous month, while the downward trend in annual producer inflation continued. Under this outlook, the main trend of inflation slowed down in February. MONTHLY INCREASE IN CONSUMER PRICES DECELERATED According to the report, the annual change rates of the B and C indices decreased by 2.61 and 2.44 points, respectively, to 39.47% and 40.21%. When the contributions to annual consumer inflation were examined; the contributions of food, basic goods, services, alcohol-tobacco-gold, and energy groups decreased by 1.33, 0.89, 0.78, 0.05, and 0.02 points, respectively, compared to the previous month. Looking at seasonally adjusted data, the monthly increase in consumer prices slowed down compared to the previous month. Monthly increases decreased in the B and C indicators compared to the previous month. Price increases in all groups forming the B index slowed down, except for processed food, which had a limited increase. Indicators followed within the CBRT showed a decrease in the main trend of inflation in February, with distribution-based indicators, especially Medyan and SATRIM, showing lower values. The price increase in services weakened in February by 3.61%, with the group’s annual inflation falling by 3.17 points to 59.78%. Accordingly, while inflation increased in transportation, it decreased in other subgroups. DECREASE IN AIR PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION PRICES LIMITED THE SUBGROUP INFLATION In monthly terms, transportation service prices stood out with a high increase of 7.30%. This increase was mainly due to urban passenger transportation. On the other hand, the decrease in air passenger transportation prices limited subgroup inflation. High price increases in education services (9.92%) were observed in February due to private school fee increases. While monthly rental inflation slowed down by 5.24% compared to the previous month, the annual inflation in this group decreased by 3.43 points to 97.21%. Monthly price increase in the communication group strengthened by 3.66% compared to the previous month, influenced by mobile phone call charges. The monthly inflation in the restaurant-hotel group decreased compared to the previous month due to both food and accommodation services. According to the report, the annual inflation of the basic goods group realized a 2.24-point decrease to 21.71%. Annual inflation decreased in all subgroups, especially clothing and footwear. While durable goods (excluding gold) prices rose moderately by 1.11%, the sub-group’s annual inflation stood at 19.59%. In February, price increases in furniture and household appliances (0.38% and 0.39%, respectively) significantly slowed down, while car prices increased by 1.57%. While prices in the clothing and footwear group decreased significantly by 5.26%, the subgroup’s annual inflation decreased by 6.76 points to 20.07%. Prices of other basic goods increased by 1.26%. Energy prices rose by 3.58% in February, with the group’s annual inflation increasing by 0.87 points to 43.92%. In this development, the adjustment of electricity tariffs for high consumers within the framework of the Final Source Supply Tariff (SKTT) led to increased electricity prices by 10.70%. Due to the impact of energy prices in TL terms and international energy prices, LPG and fuel prices increased by 6.74% and 2.27%, respectively, on a monthly basis. In addition, tap water prices increased by 2.96% monthly. ANNUAL INFLATION DECREASED IN UNPROCESSED AND PROCESSED FOOD SUBGROUPS In February, prices in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group increased by 3.17%, with the annual inflation in this group decreasing by 6.65 points to 35.11%. Annual inflation decreased by 10.42 and 3.37 points in the unprocessed and processed food subgroups, respectively. Processed food price developments (4.70%) were the main determinant of monthly food inflation. Bread and cereals, as well as milk and dairy products, continued to see price increases in February. Unprocessed food prices increased moderately by 1.40% in the relevant month. The decline in vegetable prices (-7.69%) was the main factor in this development contrary to seasonal norms. On the other hand, the increase in red meat prices (5.14%) strengthened, especially due to the impact of the Ramadan month during this period. Domestic producer prices increased by 2.12% in February, with annual inflation decreasing by 1.99 points to 25.21%. Looking at the main industrial groups; while durable, non-durable consumer goods, intermediate goods, and capital goods groups’ price increases were 2.83%, 2.41%, 2.15%, and 2.04%, respectively, energy prices recorded a relatively modest increase of 0.98%.