Turkey raises interest rates 3% in spite of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s reluctance
Turkey’s central bank raised interest rates at an emergency meeting on Wednesday and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged allegiance to global principles on monetary policy, bowing to pressure from financial markets after plunging the nation into a currency crisis. The central bank raised its late liquidity window rate by 300 basis points to 16.5%, after an extraordinary meeting of its monetary policy committee on Wednesday. It kept other rates unchanged, describing the move as a "powerful monetary tightening" and saying it’s ready to continue using all instruments. The lira reversed losses after earlier plunging as much as 5.5% to a record low. It was still 17% weaker than at the start of 2018. The central bank acted after three weeks of largely self-inflicted turmoil in Turkish markets. Erdogan, who’s seeking re-election as president in June, has repeatedly opposed any moves to raise interest rates, referring to them as "the mother of all evil", while investors and economists ar...
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