Turkish Central Bank keeps interest rates steady

The Turkish Central Bank on Thursday kept its one-week repo rate-also known as the bank's policy rate-constant at 8.25%, holding it unchanged for the third straight month.

The decision was announced in a statement following the bank's eighth Monetary Policy Committee (MCP) meeting of 2020.

On Friday, Anadolu Agency's Finance Desk survey of 22 economists forecast the bank would hold interest rates steady, with just four predicting a rise, ranging between 0.25 and 1.75 percentage points.

At the committee's last two meetings held in June and July, the bank kept its one-week repo rate at 8.25%, following a gradual cut of 375 basis points from 12% over the preceding months.

Last year, in eight meetings, the bank cut the rate by a total of 1,200 basis points, from 24%.

After holding eight meetings last year, this year the bank boosted the number of MPC meetings to 12.