Mubasher: Turkey’s central bank on Thursday kept its benchmark rate unchanged.

The Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) maintained the one-week repo rate at 24%, which was 11.25% higher since the start of the year.

“The committee has decided to maintain the tight monetary policy stance until inflation outlook displays a significant improvement,” the CBRT’s Monetary Policy Committee said in a statement.

In a departure from its previous language on the outlook for rates, the central bank’s reference to “decisively” maintaining tight stance was absent.

“While developments in import prices and domestic demand conditions have led to some improvement in the inflation outlook, risks for price stability continue to prevail.”

The Turkish lira (TRY) briefly climbed as much as 0.8% against the US dollar following the decision, but later erased all gains.

By 12:45 pm GMT, the USD/TRY rose 0.34% to TRY 5.3637.