Istanbul: a Turkish Big Mac that prices Turkey's inflation in real time
Istanbul posts the most actively-watched Big Mac price in the Turkish dataset, and one of the most-watched in the entire index. Turkey's lira-denominated burger price has multiplied roughly 33-fold since 2010 (TRY 5.65 to TRY 190), and Istanbul's price typically runs slightly above the Turkish national average due to the city's higher rents and stronger consumer demand.
For Big Mac Index analysts, Istanbul is the cleanest real-time inflation gauge for Turkey. Turkish official CPI has been politically contentious for years, with independent estimates from groups like ENAGrup running well above the official reading. The Istanbul Big Mac, like the Buenos Aires Big Mac, cannot be revised retroactively — what was on the menu board in March 2024 stays on the historical record permanently. That makes the city's burger price an unusually robust inflation reference for anyone modeling the Turkish economy.