A Brief History of Monetary Orthodoxy in Turkey
Since late 2010, the Central Bank of Turkey has been employing unconventional monetary policy tools primarily for price stability, and creating an environment conducive for economic development. It is hard to tell the reserve bank has succeeded in the former, and Turkey’s track record of economic growth is disputable.
Now with the CPI growth standing at...
Monetary Confusion and Credit Cycles
Turkey has been an interesting experience for economists in many aspects. A central bank keeping the real interest rates extremely low in a period when the country suffers from savings gap and high inflation may be among them, despite a good economic performance.
Pretending that the central bank is the only game...
November MPC: Waiting For Further Hikes
The monetary policy committee raised 1-week rate by 50 bps to 8% and the upper band by 25 bps to 8.50% vs a consensus expectations split between a 25 bps hike in the 1-week repo change and no change. As a separate decision, the central bank has decreased FX reserve requirements by 50...
August Inflation: Short Term Relief Provided
Headline inflation surprised on the downside in August with m/m realization of -0.29% against the market expectations for a flat reading. Annual inflation lowered to 8.05% from 8.79% a month ago. Meanwhile core inflation has also declined in August to 8.4% from 8.8% in July.
The downward moves in food...
April Inflation: Slows to 3-Year Low
April inflation was another negative surprise and the drop was sharper than expected for the second month in succession. The reading of 0.78% dragged the annual rate down to 6.6%, primarily due to decreasing food prices. With that being said, it is worth to note that the strong base effect was also helped...