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Turkish lira nudges downward as central bank holds interest rates
Turkey’s lira dipped slightly in Thursday afternoon trading as its central bank chose to hold the key interest rate at 14%, in line with analysts’ expectations. The announcement was preceded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to “break the shackles of interest rates,” despite inflation in the country hitting a 20-year high of 48.69% last month. “The further rise in inflation to close to 50% y/y in January was clearly not enough to sway Turkey’s central bank (and crucially, President Erdogan) to shift back to orthodoxy,” Capital Economics’ senior emerging markets economist Jason Tuvey ... (full story)