Mubasher: Turkey’s central bank on Monday said it would extend cheaper funding for banks that purchase government debt securities, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

The Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) announced that its “primary dealer” lenders, which agreed with the treasury to buy government debt, would have access to funding through an overnight lending facility at an interest rate of 23%, below its 24% benchmark one-week repo rate, the FT cited a statement published online.

The amount that could be borrowed through the facility would be determined by the volume of domestic government bonds purchased through treasury auctions, the CBRT said.

The central bank’s move came with the aim to boost market functioning and policy effectiveness.

By 1:15 pm GMT, the Turkish lira (TRY) gained against the US dollar, with the USD/TRY pair dropping by 0.37% to TRY 5.8730.