Turkey Leaves Key Rate Unchanged as Easing Cycle Pauses

Turkey’s central bank left its benchmark repurchase rate unchanged for the first time since April, vowing to maintain a “tight monetary policy stance” to curb inflation.

The lira gained to the highest level in two weeks after the Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Erdem Basci, kept the repurchase rate at 8.25 percent, as forecast by nine out of 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The panel unexpectedly lowered the upper end of the so-called interest rate corridor by 75 basis points to 11.25 percent, and the overnight borrowing rate was unchanged at 7.5 percent.