On the 20th October, the Central Bank of Turkey (CBT), increased its lending rate from 9% to 12.5%.

The move was designed to act as a brake on consumer lending, and also to strengthen the Turkish lira, which has weakened in 2011.

You can see the impact of this announcement on exchange rates, in the following chart from Oanda.com.  The lira has clawed back some of its value.

 Below: Turkish lira v British pound in October 2011.

 Below: Turkish lira v British pound November 2010 to October 2011.

What does this mean for savers? 
In the past,. KTLN has always reported interest rate news, with a focus on the CBT lending rate, as there has been a strong correlation between that rate, and the rates on offer to savers at the banks.

So have rates for savers gone up?  Well, so far, we have not noticed any significant change.  Talking to bank managers, it looks as though rates may increase a little, but probably not as much as 12.5%.  If you are investing a significant sum, over the coming weeks, you may just squeeze a rate in double figures.

Just one post script, whilst we are talking finance.  The implementation of the recently announced tax rise on tobacco has been pushed back to the end of 2012.  See the following link: Hurriyet Daily News

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