Türkiye has removed the maximum interest rate limit for domestic individual investors in a government-backed scheme that safeguards Turkish lira deposits from depreciation, according to a regulation published in the country's Official Gazette Friday.
The regulation still stipulates that the interest rate offered to lira deposits as part of the scheme cannot be below the current policy rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), but the upper limit has been removed.
Ankara launched the scheme, known by its acronym KKM, in late 2021 and sought to keep dollarization at bay by encouraging people to keep their savings in lira through guarantees to compensate for losses from the decline of the national currency.
The lira depreciated 30% against the U.S. dollar last year and 44% in 2021. It has stabilized this year ahead of the May elections.
Last year, the CBRT cut its benchmark one-week repo rate by 500 basis points to counter an economic slowdown and held it at 9% in December and January.
The CBRT trimmed it by another 50 basis points to 8.5% in February to boost industrial production and employment after last month’s devastating earthquakes.
The bank left the key policy unchanged last week.
On Thursday, the Central Bank said Turkish companies would be able to open lira accounts protecting against depreciation without needing to convert foreign currency.
An announcement in the Official Gazette said the accounts, under the scheme, would have a minimum maturity of one month compared to a previous minimum of three months.
