Turkey shocks markets with rate cut despite inflation near 80%

Turkey’s central bank shocked markets Thursday with a cut to its benchmark policy rate, despite inflation in the country sitting near 80%.

The lira, Turkey’s currency, slid 0.9% against the dollar, trading at more than 18.1 to the greenback after the news — near a record low.

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The country’s main policy rate, which had been at 14% for the last seven months, was cut to 13% in a complete mismatch to what other central banks are doing around the world.

“Another idiotic move,” commented Timothy Ash, a senior emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management.

“Insane with inflation at 80% and still rising the CBRT cuts rates, against expectations by 100bps to just 13%,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to Turkey’s central bank by its acronym.

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