Mubasher: Turkey’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, in line with expectations.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to maintain the one-week repo lending rate at 24%, after it was hiked by 11.25 percentage points last year, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said on its website.

The last hike was in September to shore up the Turkish lira (TRY) in the face of a currency crunch which sent the economy into recession.

The CBRT said it would stick to a tight monetary policy approach in an attempt to mitigate risks to pricing behaviour and support the disinflation process.

Turkey’s  annual inflation retreated to a lower-than-expected 18.71% last May, down from a 15-year high of 25.24% hit last October.