Turkish Central Bank Unexpectedly Cuts Benchmark Rate

Turkey’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate today because of a drop in the country’s “risk premium indicators.”

Policy makers led by Governor Erdem Basci cut the one-week repurchase rate by half a percentage point to 9.5 percent, according to a statement. The Ankara-based central bank kept its overnight lending rate at 12 percent and the overnight borrowing rate at 8 percent. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for all three rates to remain on hold.