The Central Bank

Retail prices in Istanbul increased by 3.59 percent month-on-month in May, slowing from 4.5 percent in April, data from the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) have shown.

The annual increase in retail prices in the country's largest city accelerated from 78.8 percent in April to 70.33 percent last month, while prices have risen 25.4 percent since the end of 2023.

The Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet for a fifth time this year to decide on the one-week repo auction rate.

Economists widely expect the bank to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 50 percent on May 23 as it did at the MPC meeting in April.

The Central Bank has announced that it will scrap the implementation regarding securities maintenance based on loan growth while raising the monthly maximum interest rates to be charged for credit cards. 

The bank said it is considering terminating the securities maintenance practice "in a short while."

The Central Bank has raised the monthly maximum interest rate on credit card cash withdrawals from 4.42 percent to 5 percent.

The bank's decision, which aimed at curbing credit card spending, was published in the Official Gazette on March 16 and came into force.

The Central Bank has changed reserve requirement ratios in a move that aims to encourage shift to Turkish Lira deposits.

The reserve requirement ratios for FX-protected accounts with maturities up to six months will be reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent, the bank announced on Jan. 30.

The Central Bank has said that it will maintain its reserve build-up strategy and ensure continuation of the stable uptrend in international reserves in 2024.

Money parked at the FX-protected deposit accounts, also known as KKM, has declined for the first time since the start of the year.

KKM deposits fell around 39 billion Turkish Liras from 3.41 trillion liras on Aug. 18 to 3.37 trillion liras ($124 billion) as of Aug. 25, the weekly data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) showed.

Members of the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee will meet on July 20 to decide about its key interest rate.

At the MPC's June meeting, the policy rate - the one-week repo auction rate - was lifted from 8.5 percent to 15 percent. This was the first rate hike since March 2021.

The Central Bank has canceled a previous decision that introduced limits on cash advance withdrawals from credit cards and overdraft accounts.

The bank announced the decision regarding cash advances at the start of the week.

Türkiye's Central Bank on March 23 kept its key policy rate unchanged after lowering it in February.

The bank kept its policy rate stable at 8.5 percent after cutting it by 50 basis points in February in order to support economic activity in the aftermath of the earthquakes that hit the south of the country.