Turkey's Central Bank keeps policy rate unchanged

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Central Bank (CBRT) on Wednesday kept its one-week repo rate -- also known as the policy rate -- constant at 24 percent.

The decision came in a statement from the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which is the first of eight meetings scheduled for the year.

Among 19 economists surveyed by Anadolu Agency on Monday, only one economist expected a 150-base-point decline, i.e. 1.50 percentage points, in one-week repo rate, while all the others foresaw no change in interest rates.

In 2018, the CBRT held nine MPC meetings, as interest rates climbed from 8 percent to 24 percent over the course of the year.