Turkey cenbank targets 60% lira deposits in banks in H1

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s central bank said on Friday it aims to lift the share of lira deposits to 60% of all deposits in the banking system over the next six months, and vowed to continue using regulations to support access to credit.

In its annual monetary policy report, the central bank said it was maintaining its long-held 5% medium-term inflation target, as the annual inflation rate begins edging down from a 24-year high above 85% in October.

The central bank, which has undertaken an “liraization” policy of stabilizing the currency as it has slashed interest rates, repeated it had no forex target level and would not buy or sell hard currencies to direct the lira.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu Ezgi Erkoyun; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Ece Toksabay)