Turkey’s Central Bank cut its one-week repo rate by 200bps, from 18% to 16%, double what consensus expected (15 of 26 economists in Bloomberg’s survey expected 17.00%, with the rest expecting a 50bps cut), arguing inflation is “transitory” if adding that it has limited room left for further reductions this year.
The “recent increase in inflation has been driven by supply side factors,” the central bank said, calling them transitory. “The Committee assessed that, till the end of the year, supply side transitory factors leave limited room for the downward adjustment to the policy rate.”
In a hilarious twist, the TCMB justifed this insane move by pointing the finger to “advanced economy” central banks and arguing that since they see inflation as temporary – and since the Fed continues to inject hundreds of billions of liquidity every month – surely inflation must be transitory, and so Turkey can surely afford a rate cut, to wit:
Central banks in advanced economies assess that the rise in inflation would be mostly temporary along with normalization in demand composition, easing of supply constraints and waning base effects. Accordingly, central banks in advanced economies continue their supportive monetary stances and asset purchase programs
Recent increase in inflation has been driven by supply side factors such as rise in food and import prices, especially in energy, and supply constraints, increase in administered prices and demand developments due to the reopening. It is assessed that these effects are due to transitory factors
