consumer prices rose more than 36% in december as the cost of transport, food and other staples ate into household budgets. most central banks raise interest rates to help cool inflation, but turkey has gone the other way. opec plus is expected to stick to its plans to increase output in february when it meets today. the group of oil producers has been gradually unwinding record production cuts of ten million barrels per day — about 10% of global oil output — agreed in march 2020 to counter the hit to demand from the pandemic. but there have been some changes at the top. joining me now is our middle east business correspondent, sameer hashmi. it isa it is a new year, so we will look at how the omicron variant is affecting the reopening plans for many economies in asia in particular, two years on from the outset of the