Turkey holds rates steady despite inflation rise

Benchmark interest rate left unchanged for a second straight month, despite inflation spiking in April.

Turkey’s central bank held its key interest rate steady at 19 percent as expected on Thursday and repeated a pledge to keep it above inflation, which the bank expects to cool after having risen beyond 17 percent as the lira depreciated. The lira has shed 13 percent since mid-March when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shocked markets by appointing Sahap Kavcioglu, who had been an outspoken critic of Turkey’s tight monetary policy, as central bank governor. But the currency edged up slightly after the central bank said it will maintain its current stance until inflation falls according to a forecast published last week, in which it predicted price pressure would ease beginning this month.