Central bank

As widely expected, Türkiye's Central Bank has kept its policy rate — the one-week repo auction rate — on hold at 50 percent.

The Central Bank has announced that it will scrap the implementation regarding securities maintenance based on loan growth while raising the monthly maximum interest rates to be charged for credit cards. 

The bank said it is considering terminating the securities maintenance practice "in a short while."

Credit growth rates are expected to stabilize following the policy rate decision taken in March and the macroprudential measures, according to the Central Bank.

Total loan growth has accelerated since the bank's rate-setting meeting in February, the bank said in the summary of the March Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, released on March 28.

European Central Bank policymaker Yannis Stournaras said on Tuesday that consensus was building within the European Central Bank for a rate cut in June, if inflation develops as projected.

BELGRADE - According to a February Ipsos survey, one-year ahead inflation expectations of the Serbian financial sector measured 4.2 pct, down from 4.5 pct anticipated in January, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) says.

The same level of expectations - 4.2 pct - was also recorded in a February Bloomberg survey, the central bank said in a statement.

Türkiye's Central Bank has decided to opt for lifting the key policy rate, increasing the one-week repo auction rate from 45 percent to 50 percent.

Most economists had expected the Central Bank, which held the policy rate steady last month after eight straight increases, to keep the rate unchanged at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on March 21.

Japan's central bank on March 19 scrapped its negative interest rate as it finally began unwinding one of the world's most aggressive monetary easing programs.

The maverick policy dating back to 2013 was aimed at jump-starting economic growth and inflation after the country's "lost decades" of stagnant activity and prices in the world's number four economy.

The Central Bank has raised the monthly maximum interest rate on credit card cash withdrawals from 4.42 percent to 5 percent.

The bank's decision, which aimed at curbing credit card spending, was published in the Official Gazette on March 16 and came into force.

The European Central Bank must lower borrowing costs twice before its August summer break and two more times before the end of the year, without being swayed by the US Federal Reserve, Bank of Greece chief Yannis Stournaras has said.

The interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank and the increase in net interest income lead to an excessive accumulation of profits in Greek and European banks and fuel the inflation of banking greed ("bankflation"), warns the Center for Planning and Economic Research (KEPE).