Turkey

Turkey’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday and introduced new measures to tackle excess liquidity and curb lending in foreign currencies, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Fatih Karahan left the benchmark at 50% for a second consecutive month, in line with all forecasts. The MPC maintained its hawkish bias, repeating that its policy will remain tight “until a significant and sustained decline in the underlying trend of monthly inflation,” according to a statement. The lira erased earlier losses and traded little changed as of 5:22 p.m.

For Nazim Salur, it’s the end of a nearly decade-long dream to build a global delivery powerhouse out of Turkey. Getir, the rapid grocery app Salur cofounded from Istanbul in 2015, last week confirmed it will exit its remaining international operations, Bloomberg News reported. Once a poster child of pandemic growth valued at $11.8 billion, attracting investors like ex-Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, Mubadala Investment Co., Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, the startup is halting operations in the Netherlands, the U.K., U.S. and Germany to focus on its core market of Turkey.

Turkish annual consumer price inflation climbed to 69.8% in April, official data showed on Friday, a bit below expectations but the highest since late-2022 on strong rises in education, restaurants and hotels prices, Reuters reported. Commenting on the figures, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said April's month-on-month inflation, which was 3.18%, was in line with expectations. In March it stood at 3.16%. "After annual inflation reaches its peak in May, it will begin to decline sharply in line with our predictions," Simsek said on social media platform X.

Turkey’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged, pausing a month after surprising markets with a big hike and delivering additional tightening since then, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Fatih Karahan left the one-week repo rate at 50% on Thursday. All but two economists surveyed by Bloomberg correctly predicted the decision, while the rest saw an increase. The lira pared gains after the announcement and traded 0.2% stronger against the dollar as of 3:14 p.m. in Istanbul.

Turkey’s lira reversed earlier losses and surged against the dollar on Monday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he’ll give his economic team more time to produce results despite facing an unprecedented rout at local elections over the weekend, Bloomberg News reported. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party suffered a defeat on Sunday, ceding control of many of Turkey’s cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, to the opposition.

Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points on Thursday, resuming a policy of rate hikes aimed at combating soaring inflation that is causing households severe economic pain, the Associated Press reported. In a surprise decision, the central bank said it was raising the benchmark one-week repo rate to 50%. The bank had been widely expected to keep the benchmark rate steady for a second month, ahead of mayoral elections on March 31.

Turkey’s annual inflation swung to a 15-month high with a faster pickup than forecast, an acceleration closely watched by a central bank that’s still on alert after ending interest-rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Stoked in part by this year’s sharp increase in the minimum wage, price growth in February quickened for a fourth straight month to 67.1% from 64.9% in January. Monthly inflation — a gauge that’s been under particular scrutiny by the central bank — also exceeded forecasts even as it eased back to 4.5% from 6.7% in January. It remains well above its level in the fourth quarter.

Turkey’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 45% on Thursday, pausing a series of aggressive rate hikes aimed at taming high inflation, the Associated Press reported. The central bank said it was keeping the benchmark one-week repo rate on hold, according to a statement. It was the bank's first interest rate decision under its newly appointed governor, Fatih Karahan. The move was in line with expectations that the rate would be kept constant after the bank said last month that monetary tightness needed to “establish the disinflation course” was achieved.

Turkey put an $8.5 billion sukuk deal with the United Arab Emirates on hold as it looks to explore cheaper options in the global bond markets, Bloomberg News reported. Ankara views the yield demanded by Abu Dhabi Development Holding Co PJSC, the fund owned by the United Arab Emirates, as unfavorable. Investor expectations of interest-rate cuts by major central banks later this year are fueling appetite for emerging-market debt, a shift in sentiment that Turkish corporates and the government are eager to capitalize on.

Turkey’s central bank governor resigned late on Friday after less than a year in office, marking the latest turbulence in a major world economy that has suffered a series of economic crises in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Turkey has had five central bank governors in the past five years under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pressured the bank into cutting interest rates in 2021 despite the country’s high inflation rate, triggering a currency crisis.