ISTANBUL, April 2 (Reuters) - Turkey was forced to raise energy prices because of a weakened lira and regional instability that has boosted oil prices, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Monday. Electricity prices were raised by 9.3 percent for households and by 8.7 percent for industrial users on April 1. Yildiz announced a natural gas price rise of an average of 18.72 percent from the same date. "Crude oil prices and the weaker lira, as well as the Arab Spring that started last year, and the Iran-Israel tension over the Strait of Hormuz have made the hikes mandatory," Yildiz told reporters in Ankara. "Rising cost pressures rendered hikes on electricity and natural gas tariffs unavoidable," brokerage Ekspres Invest said in a note, adding they would boost inflation. "The combined effect of the two changes is estimated to be around 0.55 percentage points on the headline CPI from April and onwards," it said. The lira has lost 15 percent against the dollar since the end of 2010. "An increase was widely expected, since natural gas prices are determined in accordance with changes in oil prices and forex rates, although the increases are a little higher than expectations," Tera Brokers wrote in a research note. (Writing by Ece Toksabay; editing by Jason Neely)

Source