Turkish Central Bank

Turkey will continue to back investments that will reduce imports and increase exports, said Berat Albayrak, the country's treasury and finance minister, on June 8.

The official reserves of the Turkish Central Bank reached $86.3 billion as of the end of April, the bank announced on May 28. 

The April figure showed that total reserve assets slipped 6.3% from the previous month.

Foreign currency reserves in convertible foreign currencies fell 15.5% to $50.1 billion during the same period.

The Turkish Central Bank on May 22 boosted its lira swap sale limits from 40% to 50%, according to banking sources.

The bank increased the limit of the swap auctions in the Turkish Lira Swap Market for Foreign Exchange, as per a directive it sent to lenders.

Thus, the banks' flexibility in Turkish lira and foreign currency liquidity management will have further increased.

The Turkish Central Bank on May 21 lowered its one-week repo rate by 50 base points, in line with market expectation.

A statement from the bank's fifth of 12 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings scheduled for this year said the policy rate was dropped to 8.25% from 8.75%.

The swap deal limit between the central banks of Turkey and Qatar has been amended to $15 billion equivalent of the Turkish lira and Qatari riyal.

According to a statement from the Turkish Central Bank (CBRT) on May 20, the move aims to facilitate bilateral trade in respective local currencies and to support the financial stability of the two countries.

Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak has ensured international investors that Turkey's reserves are sufficient and Ankara has been holding swap line talks with other countries.

The Turkish Central Bank's reserves are adequate to meet short-term needs, the treasury and finance minister has said, highlighting that its gross reserves stood at $53 billion as of April 24.

"Our country has kept its current account balance [stable] and it is not in financial need from any channel," Berat Albayrak told daily Sabah on May 4.

The Turkish Central Bank on April 30 revised its year-end inflation forecast to 7.4% for 2020, down from 8.2%.

The 0.8 percentage point fall was driven by the downward revision in the projections of the output gap and food inflation, the Central Bank governor said while presenting the second inflation report.

Turkish consumers' confidence in the country's economy has fallen 5.8% this month amid coronavirus fears, Turkey's statistical authority said on April 22. 

The consumer confidence index came in at 54.9 month-on-month in April, TÜİK data showed. Last month, the figure was 58.2.

The Turkish Central Bank is forecast to cut its interest rates for the 10th month in a row, according to a panel of economists surveyed by Anadolu Agency on April 20. 

The fourth Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the year will be held on April 22 to announce the bank's decision on interest rates.