Turkish central bank hikes lira swap market interest rate to 17%
A merchant counts Turkish lira banknotes at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2019. (Reuters Photo)


Turkey’s central bank said Friday that it has raised the interest rate in the lira-for-forex swap market to 17% from 15%, a day after it hiked its main policy rate to the same level.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) also hiked the interest in the lira-for-gold swap market to 17%, it said in a statement.

The move came a day after the bank of Thursday ramped up its key policy rate by 200 basis points to 17% and pledged to "decisively" keep policy tight to permanently lower inflation, which stood at 14% last month.

It said the "strong" tightening was meant to "eliminate risks to the inflation outlook, contain inflation expectations and restore the disinflation process as soon as possible."

Turkish authorities have been untangling restrictions on offshore investing, including limits on FX-to-lira swaps in parallel with the normalization process amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The CBRT has been gradually increasing the swap interest rate over the recent months from 9.75% in August.

It late last month increased its lira swap sale limits from 50% to 60%. The limit has been increasing gradually since April from 20%.

In addition, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) last month also raised the limits for swap, forward, option and other derivative transactions that Turkish lenders execute with nonresidents.

Limits were raised to 5% of bank equity, from 2%, for trades with seven days to maturity; to 10% from 5% for those with 30 days to maturity; and to 30% from 20% for one-year to maturity transactions.