The Turkish Central Bank raised its policy rate by 250 basis points to 42.5 percent. The Turkish Central Bank announced on Thursday that its monetary policy committee has resolved to complete monetary tightening measures as soon as possible.
To assist with this approach, the committee “will continue quantitative tightening by expanding the array of sterilization tools used.” at the same time, “Turkish lira deposit purchase auctions will be organized to strengthen the monetary transmission mechanism and increase the diversity of sterilization tools,” the statement went on to say.
The central bank also stated that there will be no changes to the maximum credit card interest rates or merchant commission rates. The main interest rate, which was 8.5% before the election, is now 42.5%.
The Turkish Central Bank also reported on Thursday that as of December 15, its international reserves had reached an all-time high of $142.53 billion. As of December 15, the bank’s reserves have climbed by $1.15 billion every week.
As of December 15, foreign currency reserves were $95.4 billion, while gold reserves totaled $47.13 billion. Meanwhile, the bank’s total reserves were $136.7 billion in November, up 8.3% over the previous month. Foreign currency reserves increased by 11.2% to $82.9 billion, while gold increased by 4.6% to $46.3 billion, according to the bank.
According to JPMorgan Managing Director Stefan Weiler, Turkey’s economic policies may pay dividends with the steady return of foreign investors in 2024.
“From our side, we see Türkiye as a potential big story for next year,” Weiler, the head of JPMorgan’s Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa(CEEMEA) debt capital markets said during a one on one interview.
