The Central Bank of Turkey decided on Thursday to raise the key rate to 17% from 15% per annum.

The Monetary Policy Council has decided to increase the discount rate (the one-week repo auction rate) by 2 percentage points, Prime reports referring to the regulator.

The Central Bank of Turkey, which sharply raised its key rate in the fall of 2018 to support the national currency, began to reduce it in July last year, and the rate was reduced from 24% to 19.75% per annum. The gradual reduction of the rate continued afterward.

The regulator sharply raised the rate on November 19, 2020, up to 15% per annum from the previous 10.25%. This decision was made at a time when the Turkish lira exchange rate fell rapidly. Its historical minimum was recorded on November 6 - 8,5876 lira per dollar, after which Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan replaced the Central Bank head and the Finance Ministry of the country. The Turkish currency began to rise after that. This increase was supported by subsequent news on the armistice in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Turkish lira is growing against the dollar on Thursday and reaches a maximum since November 20 amid the decision of Turkey's central bank's to raise its key rate.

As of 2.40 pm Moscow time, the dollar rate fell to 7.5774 lira per dollar from 7.6361 lira. Minutes earlier, the indicator reached 7.557 lira, which is the maximum value of the Turkish and American currency since November 20.

This is the second consecutive rate increase by the Turkish regulator.