Saudi Arabia: MODON Signs SAR500 Million Contract to Establish Vaccine Industrial Company

Saudi Arabia: MODON Signs SAR500 Million Contract to Establish Vaccine Industrial Company

Türkiye’s Central Bank Hikes Interest Rates Again

FILE - A seller attends a client in a street market at Eminonu commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey, on, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

Türkiye’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points Thursday, another large but expected hike that signals a continued push toward more traditional economic policies under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The bank hiked its policy rate to 30%, saying it has kept up the “monetary tightening process” to combat rampant inflation and control price instability. Its statement said inflation in July and August was “above expectations," hitting 58.94% last month.

It takes Türkiye into a more typical economic approach after critics blamed a series of rate cuts set by Erdogan for making a cost-of-living crisis worse. Turkish households were left struggling to afford rent and basic goods as inflation surged.

Erdogan has long argued that lowering interest rates helps fight inflation, a theory that runs contrary to traditional economic thinking. The Turkish central bank started cutting rates in late 2021 under pressure from Erdogan.

Central banks around the world, meanwhile, have been hiking rates to bring consumer price rises under control following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.