Press Release on Interest Rates (2019-01)

No: 2019-01

16 January 2019

Decision of the Monetary Policy Committee

Participating Committee Members

Murat Çetinkaya (Governor), Ömer Duman, Uğur Namık Küçük, Emrah Şener, Murat Uysal, Abdullah Yavaş.

The Monetary Policy Committee (the Committee) has decided to keep the policy rate (one-week repo auction rate) constant at 24 percent.

Recently released data show that rebalancing trend in the economy has become more noticeable. External demand maintains its strength while slowdown in economic activity continues, partly due to tight financial conditions. Current account balance is expected to maintain its improving trend.

While developments in import prices and domestic demand conditions have led to some improvement in the inflation outlook, risks on price stability continue to prevail. Accordingly, the Committee has decided to maintain the tight monetary policy stance until inflation outlook displays a significant improvement.

The Central Bank will continue to use all available instruments in pursuit of the price stability objective. Inflation expectations, pricing behavior, lagged impact of recent monetary policy decisions, contribution of fiscal policy to rebalancing process, and other factors affecting inflation will be closely monitored and, if needed, further monetary tightening will be delivered.

It should be emphasized that any new data or information may lead the Committee to revise its stance.

The summary of the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting will be released within five working days.