By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - Turkey’s central bank held rates steady at 19% as expected on Thursday in its first decision since President Tayyip Erdogan fired the hawkish former governor. But it dropped a pledge to raise them again if needed.
JOHN HARDY SAXO BANK HEAD OF FX STRATEGY
“They removed the reference to continued tightening of policy, obviously that was a relic of the previous leadership.”
“Turkey is in a real bad spot in terms of attracting inflows and it is dealing with a massive COVID outbreak. We are seeing the lira weakening on the back of this and there is a likelihood that it continues.”
Dollar weakens ahead of retail sales data Turkish c.bank holds rates, but doesn’t signal tight policy (Adds details on Turkish c.bank decision)
April 15 (Reuters) - Turkey’s lira fell on Thursday after the central bank held rates but shied away from reaffirming a pledge to tighten policy, while Russia’s rouble plummeted after Washington announced new sanctions on the country.
The lira shed 0.7% after the central bank held rates steady at 19%, but dropped a pledge to tighten policy further as needed.
It was the first monetary policy decision since President Tayyip Erdogan last month replaced hawkish governor Naci Agbal with Sahap Kavcioglu, who shares Erdogan’s unorthodox view that high interest rates cause inflation, sparking a market selloff.
Updated
Hungary may sell more T-bills, but plans no increase in long govt bond sales, debt agency head says
3 Min Read
BUDAPEST, April 15 (Reuters) - Hungary plans to finance an increase in its 2021 budget deficit by using some debt financing buffers and possibly increasing treasury bills sales but it will not boost supply of long government bonds, the head of the debt agency told Reuters on Thursday.
The government said last month it would modify the 2021 budget to raise the deficit target to 7.5% of gross domestic product from 6.5%, because the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has hit the economy hard. After contracting 5% in 2020, the economy may grow 4.3%, the government projections show. nL1N2LS298
By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
BUDAPEST, April 15 (Reuters) - Hungary’s government is in talks with all possible suppliers to make up for an expected shortfall of half a million vaccine doses, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said on Thursday.
“Inoculations require vaccines and we know that another one of the shots ordered by Brussels will be missing, the Janssen vaccines will not arrive. That means half a million fewer shots,” Gulyas told an online briefing. (Reporting by Anita Komuves and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
2 Min Read
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria’s annual inflation climbed to a more than four-year high in March, rising 82 basis points from a month earlier to 18.17%, the statistics office said on Thursday.
People shop for vegetables at a market amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Kano, Nigeria December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Afolbabi Sotunde
Galloping food prices have heaped pressure on households in Africa’s largest economy, which is also facing a shrinking labour market and stagnant growth at a time of mounting insecurity.
Food prices rose 1.16 percentage points from the previous month to 22.95% in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. Inflation hit 18.72% in January 2017.