• Turkish consumer prices accelerate less than expected
• Turkey’s central bank last raised the benchmark rate to 50%

Turkey’s inflation rate rose for a fifth straight month, edging closer to 70% despite a series of aggressive interest-rate hikes.

Consumer inflation quickened to 68.5% in March, slightly less than expected by analysts but up from 67.1% in February. The median estimate in a Bloomberg poll of economists was 69.1%.

Services, education and food were among the key contributors. Core inflation, which strips out volatile items like food and energy, quickened to the highest on record to 75.2%, up from 72.9% in February.

Monthly inflation — policymakers’ preferred gauge — slowed to 3.16% from 4.5% the previous month and recorded the lowest reading since December.