Inflation in Turkey his an annual 73.5% in May, data showed on Friday, climbing to its highest level since 1998 as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to be dogged by the issue ahead of elections next year.

Erdogan has been blamed by critics for insisting on lowering interest rates in the face of rising prices to try and stimulate his nation’s economy. Last week the central bank again refused to raise its main rate of 14%. Meanwhile prices of food and energy continued to skyrocket even higher last month as food prices rose 91.6% and transport prices rose 107.6%.

The Turkish lira was hit even harder as rumors spread of a military action possibly being launched in Norther Syria. The lira has dropped nearly 48% since a year ago.

And even that may not accurately measure how bad the economic situation is. With elections roughly a year away, the national statistics agency has been accused by both the opposition and economists of manipulating the data to downplay the extent of the inflation and its effect on the economy.

Independent Turkish economists, under the banner of the Inflation Research Group, said on Friday that the real inflation number actually accelerated by 160.8%, over twice the official number.