Turkish Central Bank holds policy rate at 14 percent despite further inflation surge

Turkey's Central Bank kept its policy rate steady at 14% for the sixth straight month on June 23, despite a jump in inflation to over 70 percent and a steep depreciation in the lira.

Thursday June 23 2022 02:21 pm

Duvar English

Turkey's Central Bank held its policy rate at 14% for a sixth straight month on June 26 as expected, even with an inflation rate of 73.5 percent.

The bank said in a statement that it "will continue to use all of its tools within the framework of liraization until powerful indicators indicating a permanent fall in the inflation arise and until a medium-term target of 5 percent [in inflation] is reached."

Turkey's annual inflation rate jumped to a 24-year high of 73.5% in May, according to official data released by TÜİK on June 3, fuelled by war impact, rising energy prices and a lira that has tumbled since a December crisis.

According to unofficial data from the ENAG Inflation Research Group, an independent institution set up in 2020 to track the country’s inflation, Turkey’s annual consumer price inflation rate was 160.76% in May, far higher than official claims.