Central Bank to announce decision on key policy rate

ANKARA

The Turkish Central Bank is expected to keep the policy interest rate at 46 percent on June 19, according to a state-run Anadolu Agency poll of economists. 

Members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee are set to decide on the rates at a time when Turkish inflation is slowing but geopolitical tension in the region is heightened.

Among 23 economists polled by the state-run agency, 19 estimated that the policy rate would remain constant this week.

The average year-end forecast among the surveyed economists is 35.5 percent.

The bank increased the policy rate, the one-week repo auction rate, from 42.5 percent to the current 46 percent in April.

The bank also lifted its overnight lending rate from 46 percent to 49 percent and the overnight borrowing rate from 41 percent to 44.5 percent.

The bank has been stressing that it will maintain its tight monetary policy stance “until permanent decline in inflation is sustained and price stability is achieved.”

Türkiye's annual inflation was at 35.41 percent in May, down from 37.86 percent in April, its lowest level since November 2021.

A Central Bank survey earlier this week showed that inflation expectations are improving.

Inflation expectations for the end of 2025 declined from 30.35 percent in May to 29.86 percent in June.

In May, the Central Bank kept its inflation forecast for 2025 at 24 percent, while leaving its end-2026 forecast unchanged at 12 percent.