Turkey’s central bank hikes interest rates again in further shift in economic policies

By ROBERT BADENDIECK
Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points to 30%. It’s another large but expected hike that signals a continued push toward more traditional economic policies under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The central bank says inflation was “above expectations” in July and August and that it will keep raising borrowing costs to target rampant inflation and control price instability. It takes Turkey further into a more typical economic approach after critics have blamed a series of rate cuts set by Erdogan for making a cost-of-living crisis worse.