ISTANBUL - Turkish inflation remained loftier than expected in October, dipping only to 48.58% annually and to 2.88% monthly according to data on Monday, underscoring the central bank's slow and difficult battle against years of soaring prices.

Some analysts said the data signalled there would be no interest rate cuts until next year, while Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek acknowledged "it takes time to remove rigidities" in the battle against inflation.

The annual rate was driven by education and housing prices, while the monthly rate, was driven by heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic drinks prices, up 4.33%, and clothing and shoes, up 14.32%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said.

In September - when rises were also higher than expected, prompting a note of caution from the central bank - monthly consumer price inflation (CPI) inflation was 2.97%, with the annual rate at 49.38%.

A Reuters pollshowed annual inflation was expected to fall to 48.2%, while the monthly figure was seen at 2.61%, mainly due to food prices. It showed the annual rate at 43.6% by year-end, higher than the bank's forecast, and at 25.1% at end-2025.

With the yearly rate down to its lowest since mid-2023, the central bank is closely watching monthly inflation as it continues to assess when it will begin easing monetary policy.

Ahead of the CPI report, it was expected to make a first interest rate cut in December or January, having kept the policy rate at 50% since March.

The central bank had warned last month that a bump in recent inflation readings increased uncertainty, and it also flagged that food prices would likely boost monthly October CPI.

The inflation data is "likely to dash any remaining hopes that a monetary easing cycle will start this year," said Nicholas Farr, economist at Capital Economics.

The domestic producer price index was up 1.29% month-on-month in October for an annual rise of 32.24%, the data showed.

The lira TRYTOM=D3 traded slightly weaker at 34.35 against the dollar after the data, near an all-time low.

The central bank hiked rates by 4,150 basis points between June last year and March, as part of an abrupt shift to orthodox policy after years of low rates to stoke growth and a series of currency crashes that sent inflation soaring.

Simsek, who is spearheading the economic turnaround programme, said in a post on X that "backward pricing behaviour is high" especially in rents and education.

A test of the government's commitment to quashing inflation comes at year end, when it is expected to again hike the minimum wage: a large rise would help workers claw back some of their big real income losses, but could also stoke labour costs.

(Reporting by Oben Mumcuoglu and Daren Butler;Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Bernadette Baum)