Turkey

Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points on Thursday, pressing ahead with a series of hikes aimed at combating inflation that reached nearly 65% in December, the Associated Press reported. The bank brought its benchmark rate to 45%. It's the eighth interest rate hike since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has abandoned his unconventional economic policies that economists say helped trigger a currency crisis and drove up the cost of living. Many households were left struggling to afford basic goods.

Turkey's crypto asset regulations, expected to bring licensing and operating standards to trading platforms, are at the final stage, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The rules are aimed at reducing the risk of trading crypto assets as well as helping the country to be taken off an international financial crime watchdog "grey list", Simsek told the state-owned Anadolu news agency. "Crypto asset trading platforms will be licensed by the Capital Markets Board (CMB), and minimum operating standards will be required ...

Turkey's central bank lifted its key interest rate by 250 basis points to 42.5% on Thursday as expected as it faces down years of soaring inflation, but promised to end the aggressive tightening cycle as soon as possible, Reuters reported. Some analysts said one more rate hike was on the cards after seven straight months of tightening. The central bank has lifted its one-week repo rate by 3,400 basis points since June, when President Tayyip Erdogan appointed former Wall Street banker Hafize Gaye Erkan as its governor to conduct a sharp pivot toward more orthodox policies.

The Turkish Central Bank's total reserves have jumped to a record level exceeding $140 billion, five bankers' calculations showed on Tuesday, sustaining an uptrend after it adopted more orthodox policies following May elections, Reuters reported. The rising reserves, alongside 3,150 basis points in interest rate hikes since June, have marked a departure from years of unorthodox and at times erratic policymaking - and some foreign investors are taking note. Including the latest rise of $3.5-3.8 billion in the week to Dec.

Turkey’s central bank has raised interest rates to 40 percent, its highest level in nearly two decades, in a significant move to tame the country’s runaway inflation after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had previously defied economic convention by cutting rates to slow price increases, the New York Times reported. The increase of 5 percentage points on Thursday, which was larger than expected and the sixth consecutive increase by the bank, came as inflation in Turkey is running at 61.36 percent.

Turkey's new rules to regulate the crypto market are likely to focus on licensing and taxation, sector officials say, as the world's fourth-biggest crypto-trading country seeks to get off an international financial crime watchdog's "grey list," Reuters reported. Ankara promised the regulations last month amidst a years-long boom in crypto trading, as soaring inflation and a plunging lira currency drives a demand for alternative assets.

Turkey’s central bank delivered another sizable interest-rate increase on Thursday and signaled it could tighten policy further to rein in inflation that’s on track to end this year near 70%, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, lifted its benchmark rate to 35% from 30%, in line with most forecasts. Turkish bank stocks rose as much as 3% after the decision before paring gains as of 3:52 p.m. local time. The lira was little changed.

Investors looking to make big bets on Turkish assets will have to wait longer for the country’s policymakers to meet one of their key demands — the lifting of restrictions on the offshore currency swaps market, Bloomberg News reported. Turkish authorities won’t ease a cap on swaps deals in the near-term amid concerns over a weakening lira, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Removing the cap on overseas lira supply at this point could risk an increase in short-selling activity, which the nation’s economic leadership is concerned about, they said.

Turkish inflation accelerated to the fastest this year as higher energy costs complicate efforts to contain domestic demand with jumbo interest-rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. With services and food costs on the rise, the pace of annual price gains jumped to 61.5% last month from almost 59% in August, according to Turkey’s statistical office. It accelerated for a third straight month and came in line with forecasts.

Turkey’s central bank delivered another sizable interest-rate hike, matching expectations but disappointing a market that was pricing in more aggressive moves to curb inflation running at almost 60%, Bloomberg News reported. The lira reversed gains after the Monetary Policy Committee raised rates for a fourth straight time to bring its benchmark to 30% from 25%.