Lizzie Porterلِيزي بورتر@lcmporter
A basket of groceries in Istanbul is now more expensive than in the UK.
I compared two online shopping baskets - 1 from Carrefour for delivery in Istanbul; one from Sainsbury's.
The price of 19 basic items in the UK totalled £44.53.
The price of the 19 basic items in Istanbul totalled 4,425.18 TL / £71.99 at today's exchange rate.
I compared using the cheapest available options and the most similar items/quantities available.
There are a few items that really push up the cost of the grocery basket in Turkey, namely beef and instant coffee (?!). Some goods such as olive oil are roughly the same price as in the UK, while some items such as eggs, milk and onions are quite a bit cheaper in Turkey.
The gross minimum wage in Turkey is 33,030 (£537.88) a month.
The gross minimum wage in the UK is £12.71 an hour for people over 21. Assuming a 35 hour working week, this is £444.85 a week.
None of this is to say that people in the UK have it easy. I know the cost of living crisis - already years in the making and now exacerbated by the war in Iran - is hitting many people very very hard.
The point I'm rather trying to make is that inflation in Turkey is crazy, pushing living costs up to levels that far outstrip what many people earn.
