Türkiye raises the interest rate by 650 basis points to 15%

Turkey’s central bank raised its base interest rate by 650 basis points to 15 percent on Thursday, reversing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policy of cutting interest rates, but the move towards post-election tightening still fell short of expectations.

In its first meeting after the appointment of Hafiza Ghaya Arkan as governor, the central bank changed course after it pursued for years a policy of monetary easing, in which the rate of one-week repurchase agreements (repo) fell to 8.5 percent from 19 percent in 2021 despite high inflation.