Health payment changes to drive Turkish inflation higher in Feb, economists say

ANKARA (Reuters) - A recent change in Turkey's health regulations is expected to add 0.6 percentage points to inflation in February and push annual inflation up by 1.5 percentage points, economists estimate.

Under the new regulation, patient contribution fees for health services in public hospitals have increased by 233%, while fees for large city hospitals have surged by 543%.

The change had already contributed 0.6 percentage points to January's 5.03% monthly inflation, with health service costs rising by approximately 23.6%, according to economists' calculations.

Turkey's monthly inflation rate climbed more than expected to 5.03% in January due to a minimum wage hike and several new-year price updates, while annual inflation fell to 42.12%, data showed on Monday.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Editing by Ece Toksabay)

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