Turkey keeps interest rate intact

Ankara: Turkey´s central bank kept its main interest rate unchanged on Thursday despite market expectatons of another hike, sending the lira to record lows.The Turkish lira lost over two percent in value to reach 7.97 against the dollar after the announcement at 1100 GMT.

The central bank said in a statement on its website that the one-week repo rate would remain at 10.25 percent. Inflation in Turkey remains in double-digits.

All but two analysts among 27 respondents in a Bloomberg survey had expected a rate hike to 12 percent.

Last month, the bank increased the one-week repo rate by two full percentage points from 8.25 percent in the first rise since September 2018.

The bank said a "significant tightening in financial conditions has been achieved, following the monetary policy and liquidity management steps taken to contain inflation expectations and risks to the inflation outlook.

"Accordingly, the (bank) has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged." Consumer price inflation was 11.75 percent in September. The bank also promised to "use all available instruments in pursuit of the price stability and financial stability objectives."