Turkish Central Bank

As widely expected, the Turkish Central Bank has kept the key interest rate, the one-week repo auction rate, on hold for an eighth straight month at 50 percent.

While inflation expectations and price behavior tend to improve, they continue to pose risks to the disinflation process, the bank said in a statement released after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Nov. 21.

Members of the Turkish Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are set to meet on Nov. 21 to decide about the key interest rate.

Most economists expect the bank to keep its policy rate, the one-week repo auction rate, unchanged for the eighth straight month at 50 percent.

Analysts at some international banks are now expecting the Turkish Central Bank to deliver a rate cut in November after the bank altered its guidance.

In a statement accompanying its rate decision, the bank said on Sept. 19 that "monetary policy tools will be used effectively in case a significant and persistent deterioration in inflation is foreseen."

Declines in inflation over the next months will further boost the rise in the share of Turkish Lira deposits in total, according to a post on the Turkish Central Bank's blog.

The share of lira deposits in total deposits grew from 48.4 percent to 51.8 percent in July-August, the blog post by researchers and economists working at the bank stated.

Türkiye has changed its economic policies, garnering attention from investors worldwide, said U.S. investor and financial expert Jim Rogers, adding that foreign investors will "come back but it takes a while."

"If Türkiye can show us that they are doing the right thing now, investors will come back," Rogers told Anadolu Agency.

The Turkish Central Bank's net reserves are likely to turn positive in 2024, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

In a note on the Central Bank's latest rate decision, Goldman Sachs said that it expects rising foreign inflows and a narrower current account deficit to pull the rate of Turkish Lira appreciation further inside the forwards in 2024.

The latest data have shown that the Turkish Central Bank's gross reserves have climbed to a new all-time high.

The bank's gross reserves increased from $136.5 billion on Nov. 24 to $140.2 billion on Dec. 1.

Foreign currency reserves rose from $91 billion to $93.2 billion, while gold reserves climbed from $45.5 billion to $46.9 billion.

The Turkish Central Bank's international reserves rose from $98.5 billion on May 26 to $108.6 billion on June 30, while the net reserves improved by $14.2 billion over the same period, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on July 11. 

Falling for a sixth consecutive month, Türkiye's annual consumer inflation rate slowed to a 16-month low of 43.68 percent in April, according to official data released yesterday.

April's figure, announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), was down from 50.51 percent in March.
The inflation rate was 69.97 percent in April 2022.

The Turkish Central Bank on April 27 held its interest rate at 8.5 percent in its Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC)  meeting.