Hunger Threshold for a Family of Four Set at 30,597 TL

In a written statement, KTAMS President Güven Bengihan said the figure was calculated based on the Ministry of Health’s dietary guidelines for a healthy family of four, combined with the average prices of items in this dietary pattern as provided by the Statistics Institute.

According to Bengihan, the daily cost of essential food items for a healthy diet was calculated at 262.94 TL for an adult woman (7,888.20 TL monthly), 274.09 TL for an adult man (8,222.70 TL monthly), 290.92 TL for a child aged 15–19 (8,727.60 TL monthly), and 191.95 TL for a child aged 4–6 (5,758.50 TL monthly).

He stated that the total monthly cost of maintaining a healthy, balanced and adequate diet for a family of four was 30,597 TL.

Bengihan also referred to official figures from the Statistics Institute, noting that the inflation rate for July was 3.17%, while the annual cost-of-living increase stood at 35.33%.

“As our union has repeatedly stressed, the current 2015=100 base year Consumer Price Index basket—prepared according to consumption habits from ten years ago—has become outdated and no longer reflects the country’s real consumption patterns,” Bengihan said. He called for the basket to be updated urgently to better represent societal consumption habits in calculating the cost-of-living rate.