ANKARA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's central bank held its key interest rate steady at 50 percent on Thursday for the seventh straight month, in line with market expectations.
"In September, the underlying trend of inflation posted a slight increase. Indicators for the third quarter suggest that domestic demand continues to slow down, approaching disinflationary levels," the bank said in a statement.
While core goods inflation remains low, an improvement in services inflation is expected in the last quarter, the bank predicted.
"However, the uncertainty regarding the pace of improvement in inflation has increased in light of incoming data," it noted.
Inflation expectations and pricing behavior continue to pose risks to the disinflation process, it said.
The tight monetary stance will be maintained until a significant and sustained decline in the underlying trend of monthly inflation is observed, and inflation expectations converge to the projected forecast range, it said.
Türkiye has been grappling with rising inflation and one of the worst cost-of-living crises in its history. From June 2023 to March this year, the central bank raised its key interest rate from 8.5 percent to 50 percent to tighten monetary policy, and has kept the interest rate unchanged since March.
According to official data released in early October, Türkiye's annual inflation rate slowed to 49.38 percent in September, marking the first time in three years that inflation has fallen below the country's key interest rate. ■