Turkey's Central Bank lowers interest rates

Turkey’s Central Bank lowers interest rates

Effective February 9, 2005, Turkey's Central Bank (TCMB) lowered short-term interest rates by half a point. An announcement form the TCMB confirms that the overnight borrowing rate was reduced from 17% to 16.50% and the borrowing rate from 21% to 20.50%. The move had been widely anticipated because of the generally good news regarding Turkey's inflation figures. Within the application of Late Liquidity Window framework, the overnight lending interest rate of the Interbank Money Market between 16:00-16:30 was lowered from 25% to 24.50%, while the borrowing interest rates remained unchanged at 5%. Also, overnight and one week borrowing interest rates were reduced from 19% to 18.50% under the open market operations framework by way of repurchasing agreements with market maker banks.