Türkiye’s central bank holds key interest rate unchanged for 6th consecutive month

ANKARA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) — Türkiye’s central bank held its key interest rate steady at 50 percent on Thursday for a sixth straight month, in line with market expectations.
“When all indicators pertinent to monthly inflation are jointly analyzed, its underlying trend is assessed to have displayed no discernible change in August,” said a statement issued by the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee.
Indicators for the third quarter confirm that domestic demand continues to slow down with a diminishing inflationary impact, the statement said.
While core goods inflation remains low despite a slight uptick, the improvement in services inflation is expected to occur in the last quarter, it said.
Still, inflation expectations and pricing behavior continue to pose risks to the disinflation process, it noted.
The tight monetary policy will be maintained until a significant and sustained decline in the underlying trend of monthly inflation is observed, and inflation expectations converge to the projected forecast range, it said.
Türkiye has been grappling with rising inflation and one of the worst cost-of-living crises in its history. From June 2023 to this March, the central bank has raised its key interest rate from 8.5 percent to 50 percent, tightening monetary policy.
The country’s annual inflation rate moderated to 51.97 percent in August, marking its lowest level in a year. The figure, released by official data in early September, came in slightly below market expectations. ■