* Istanbul price data raises inflation concerns
* High oil prices exacerbate financing fears
* Further required reserve ratio hike eyed
(Updates prices, adds quotes, inflation)
ISTANBUL, Mar 1 (Reuters) - The Turkish lira weakened against the dollar and bond yields edged higher on Tuesday as investors fretted over the impact of higher oil prices on an energy hungry, fast-growing economy.
Stocks also declined after a positive opening, with shares dipping 0.91 percent to 60,741.05 at 1237 GMT. The MSCI emerging-markets index rose 0.77 percent.
After gaining more than emerging peers last year, Turkish stocks have fallen more than 7 percent since the start of the year, significantly underperforming markets such as Russia or central Europe due to concerns about the central bank's strategy and a spiralling current account deficit.
"The equity market remains an underperformer due to a number of uncertainties stemming from the central bank's monetary policy and, more recently, Middle East and North African unrest and its effect on oil prices," said Stuart Hackett, a trader at EkspresInvest in Istanbul.
Turkey imports 95 percent of its oil needs.
The lira eased to 1.6060 to the dollar from a previous close of 1.5985.
Fuelled by speculation that the central bank will raise banks' reserve requirements to curb credit growth when its policy committee meets later this month, the yield on the benchmark Nov 7, 2012 bond rose to 8.85 from 8.78 percent.
The central bank, which held rates last month after cutting them in December and January while raising banks' reserve requirements to absorb extra liquidity, has said it now wants to give its policies time to work.
But a sharp increase in the January trade deficit, reported on Monday, raised expectations that the central bank would do more to curb consumer loan demand.
Weekly data released by the banking watchdog (BDDK) on Monday showed loans were up 35.6 percent year-on-year and 2.8 percent since the start of 2011.
A BDDK official told Reuters on Tuesday that the regulator is warning banks whose loans are growing particularly fast as it seeks to keep credit growth within the 20-25 percent in 2011.
Investors are anxious the bank could fall behind the curve in fighting inflation without further monetary tightening, including rate hikes.
While consumer price inflation reached its lowest levels in more then 40 years in January, producer price inflation is running much higher.
Retail prices in Istanbul rose 0.57 percent month-on-month in February, while wholesale prices increased 2.42 percent, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday. In January retail prices had declined. The government's nationwide inflation data for February will be released on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Statistics Office reported unemployment in Turkey fell to 11.9 percent in 2010 from 14 percent a year earlier -- positive news for the AK Party government as it moves closer to an election set for June 12. (Reporting by Behiye Selin Taner and Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Ron Askew)