Mubasher: The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) is considering measures to ease liquidity without compromising the tight monetary policy.

The CBRT’s governor Murat Cetinkaya said that the tightened policies will be maintained until a “clear” decline in the country’s inflation is observed.

Turkey’s inflation rate edged up in January as soaring food prices wiped out the impact from tax breaks on utilities and key goods.

Consumer prices rose 20.4% year-on-year last January, compared with an increase of 20.3% in December 2018.

“Considering the periodic conditions, liquidity steps could be taken with the aim of contributing to financial stability. These tools and steps taken do not bear a direct signal regarding the monetary policy stance,” Anadolu Agency reported, citing Cetinkaya as saying.

The CBRT’s governor did not elaborate regarding the nature of these “steps”.

Turkey’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, mollifying investor worries that it could relax policy after inflation retreated from a 15-year high.

The one-week repo lending rate was kept at 24% after it was raised by 11.25 percentage points last.