Turkey among the cheapest for energy prices

Turkey ranks 10th for cheapest household energy and fourth among OECD nations, according to an energy price index released last month. Due to recent price increases in electricity last year, Turkey dropped two places from the International Energy Agency, or IEA, 2007 rankings. The IEA report included a meticulous inquiry into energy prices among OECD countries. Real energy prices, including both electric and natural gas were calculated by multiplying nominal prices, based on the index of producer prices by that of consumer prices for households. While Turkey was the most expensive energy user in 2002, with an index value of 116.1 over the last five years, due to a lack of price increases in 2004, it became the 19th cheapest country, with a value of 102.9. After placing 18th in 2005 and 14th in 2006, Turkey increased its rank to eighth last year. Turkey, whose index value rose to the level of 112.2 this year, became the 10th cheapest country due to recent increases in electric prices in 2008. Considering that the OECD European index value has been set at 117.2 and the total OECD as 130.8, Turkey surpassed both these averages in the second quarter of 2008.