Central bank increases dollar interest rate


After seeing the record high dollar-Turkish lira parity of 3.0750 last Thursday on international markets, today the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) raised the dollar rate from 0.23 to 0.24 as a way to take precautions against possible high fluctuations in the parity, following the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed)'s signal to possibly increase its policy rate. Although the dollar-Turkish lira parity started the day at around 3.0420, the previous weeks record high parity of 3.0750 triggered the bank to increase the rate it pays to other banks for the reserves held in dollars as a precautionary step. This measure is meant to increase the CBRT's dollar stock in order to combat any radical change in the parity in a global environment of monetary policy shift expectations, notably, any which will create volatility in global markets. The parity experienced another remarkably high level of 3.0613 today at around 1:30 p.m. As well as the Fed's remarks to possibly hike rates this year, the announcement of the U.S. employment rate in September on Friday is also considered another determinant for the Fed's policy change decision. As observed, the CBRT has been attempting to address the resulting fluctuations in the dollar-Turkish lira parity to change the direction of any radical change in the global environment of uncertainty.