Türkiye keeps interest rate steady

ANKARA (AA) – The Turkish Central Bank on Thursday hold its one-week repo rate, also known as the policy rate, constant at 9% for the second month in a row, meeting market forecast.

"Level and underlying trend of inflation have been improved with the support of the integrated policy approach implemented to strengthen sustainable price stability and financial stability," the bank said in a statement following its first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2023.

"It is critically important that financial conditions remain supportive for the sustainability of structural gains in supply and investment capacity by preserving the growth momentum in industrial production and the positive trend in employment in a period of increasing uncertainties regarding global growth as well as further escalation of geopolitical risks," the bank added.

According to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Türkiye's annual consumer inflation fell to a six-month low of 64.27% in December, down from 84.39% in November.

All economists surveyed by Anadolu Agency on Monday expected the bank to keep interest rate constant this week.

At its November meeting, the bank cut the rate by 150 basis points to 9%, thus having lowered the key rate by 500 basis points, or 5 percentage points, since August 2022.