Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s central bank increased its inflation estimate to 6.5 percent this year from a previous prediction of 5.2 percent.

The central bank set a band for inflation at the end of this year of between 5.1 percent and 7.9 percent, Basci said at a news conference in Istanbul today to publish the bank’s quarterly inflation report. Inflation will start to fall gradually in the second quarter, he said.

The inflation estimate for next year is 5.1 percent, Basci said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Selcuk Gokoluk in Istanbul at sgokoluk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Bentley at mbentley3@bloomberg.net