The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said Thursday its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to maintain short-term interest rates at their current levels.

The bank said in a statement that the one-week repo rate, known as the bank's policy rate, was kept at 8 percent.

The marginal funding rate and overnight borrowing rate were also kept steady at 9.25 and 7.25 percent, respectively, the bank said.

It also said it left late liquidity window interest rates unchanged, with the borrowing rate at 0 percent and the lending rate at 12.75 percent.

"Recently released data indicates that economic activity maintains its strength. Domestic demand continues to expand and external demand contributes positively to exports. The current elevated levels of inflation and inflation expectations continue to pose risks to pricing behavior. Accordingly, the committee decided to maintain tight monetary policy," the bank's statement read.

It also said that it will continue to use all available instruments in pursuit of price stability.

Tight monetary policy will be maintained until the inflation outlook shows significant improvement independent of base effects and temporary factors and becomes consistent with targets, the bank said. It added that inflation expectations, pricing behavior and other factors affecting inflation will be closely monitored and, if needed, it will pursue further monetary tightening.

Thursday's MPC meeting is the first of eight meetings scheduled for the year. According to the bank's program, the next meetings will be held on March 7, Apr. 25, June 7, July 24, Sept. 13, Oct. 25, and Dec. 13.