Opposition slams rate policy

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The main opposition has warned that interest rates, which are already under pressure from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s exit plan announcement, might rise further. “Therefore the government should give up approaching the economy with ideological spectacles and seek ways to do whatever the economy requires,” said the Economic Outlook Report prepared by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The Fed’s withdrawal announcement is bad news for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which had been “turning the wheels with global liquidity abundance and hot money for 10 years,” the CHP’s report said.

The Fed decision worst-hit Turkish Lira and the CHP report said the Central Bank was torn between the government’s ideological sensitivity against high interest rates and the immediate necessity to stabilize lira against the U.S. currency by raising interest rates.