The Turkish Statistical Institute announced that it will take into account the government's decision to provide natural gas free of charge to homes in May, when calculating inflation.
The institute added that this measure will have a significant impact on reducing the inflation rate in May, as the weight of natural gas in inflation calculations is about 2.9%.
Ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged in April to provide gas for free, and explained that the government will provide 25 cubic meters of natural gas to families free of charge, for one year starting in May.
Inflation data for May is due to be released on June 5.
Hakan Kara, an academic at Bilkent University and former chief economist at Turkey's central bank, said on Twitter that the Turkish Statistical Institute may report slightly zero or negative inflation for May after deducting 2.4 points from the monthly inflation rate thanks to free natural gas.
In a related context, data from "Refinitiv Ekon" and traders showed that Turkey's purchases of Russian "Ural" crude recorded in May their highest level in 7 months.
This comes at a time when Turkish refineries have taken advantage of the low prices of this crude to increase oil imports.
Turkey is the only major importer of Ural crude transported by sea in Europe, after most other countries in the region agreed to ban those purchases due to the Russian war on Ukraine.
About 230,<> barrels per day of Ural crude were loaded for delivery to Turkish ports in May, the highest level since October last year and about double April's supply.