By Ed Frankl
Turkey's central bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate for the third consecutive meeting, as it attempts to wrest back control of climbing inflation in the troubled economy.
The bank raised the country's benchmark interest rate, the one-week repo rate, to 25% from 17.5%. After a series of cuts, the bank increased rates in June for the first time since 2021.
The hike compares with expectations of a key rate of 20%, according to a consensus of economists polled by FactSet. Some analysts have called on the bank to take aggressive action to tamp down on inflation, which jumped to 48% on year in July from 38% in June.
The Turkish lira has also fallen more than 30% against the dollar since the start of the year.
The decision is the latest by the country's new central-bank governor, Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former executive of First Republic Bank and Goldman Sachs, who was appointed after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a close-fought re-election, in what many saw as a return to more orthodox monetary policy.
Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-24-23 0727ET
