The Central Bank left the policy rate constant at 45% and the 8-month interest rate increase cycle ended. CBRT did not change credit card interest rates.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkiye (CBRT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the policy rate, the one-week repo auction interest rate, unchanged at 45%. Thus, the 8-month interest cycle ended in the first meeting chaired by Fatih Karahan.
In addition to the interest rate decision, it was also wondered whether the CBRT would make a decision regarding credit cards. CBRT President Fatih Karahan, in his presentation of the inflation report, stated that they think credit cards should be regulated and said, “We have a few ideas on this issue, our work continues.”
The Central Bank did not change its decision regarding credit cards. Accordingly, the reference rate for bank and credit card interests remained as the upper limit of 3.11.
Although interest rates increased in the previous two months, credit card maximum interest rates remained untouched. Thus, credit card interest rates have remained unchanged since November.
Following the interest rate decision in December, the CBRT said, “An upper limit has been imposed on the reference rate in order to prevent credit card maximum interest and member workplace maximum commission rates from exceeding their current levels. The current level of the reference rate has been determined as an upper limit of 3.11, and no change has been made in the current calculation method for rates below this level. In this context, there will be no increase in the last announced rates for credit card maximum interest and member workplace maximum commission rates.”
The reference rate is calculated by taking into consideration the lower of the weighted average current interest rate applied by banks to Turkish Lira deposits with a maturity of 32-45 days and 10% more than the policy interest rate.
Source: NTV / Prepared by Irem Yildiz