ISTANBUL: Turkish annual inflation slowed to 43.68 percent in April, official data showed on Wednesday, easing ahead of elections that polls show President Tayyip Erdogan risks losing largely due to a cost-of-living crisis. Unorthodox rate cuts sought by Erdogan sparked a currency crisis in late 2021, sending inflation to a 24-year peak of 85.51 percent last year. It fell in December and touched 50.51 percent by March with a favorable base effect and a relatively stable lira. The consumer price index rose 2.39 percent in April from a month earlier, the Turkish Statistical Institute said. The official numbers were slightly less than predicted, with a median monthly estimate of 2.60 percent and an annual forecast of 44 percent in the latest Reuters poll. The cost-of-living crisis has eaten away at household savings and also at Erdogan’s popularity ahead of the presidential and parliamentary votes on May 14, seen as the president’s biggest test in his 20-year reign. Some polls show Erdogan trailing his main opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The base effect that helped lower the annual reading so far this year is expected to wear off in the coming months and economists say April could be the lowest reading this year. The year-end median estimate was 46.5 percent in the Reuters poll. Annually, the biggest increase was seen in the health sector with 66.62 percent, followed by restaurants and hotels with 66.41 percent and food and non-alcoholic beverages with 53.92 percent. On a monthly basis, communication prices rose 5.93 percent, restaurant and hotel prices rose 4.24 percent and food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose 3.95 percent. The poll had forecast that consumer prices were expected to end the year at 46.5 percent. The domestic producer price index was up 0.81 percent month-on-month in April for an annual rise of 52.11 percent, the data showed.