Central Bank To Set Forex Selling Amount On Daily Basis

- Central Bank of Turkey announced that, it would set the amount of foreign exchange selling auctions on a daily basis depending on the conditions in the foreign exchange market starting from 27 February 2015.

"The minimum amount of the auction for the following day will be announced by CBT at 17.20 through Reuters CBTQ, Bloomberg CBT/ Foreign Exchange Auctions and Anadolu Agency DV007 pages" the Bank said in a statement relaesed on Friday.

"On days when deemed necessary due to excessive volatility, the FX selling auction amount will be increased up to 50 percent above the pre-announced minimum amount. The auction amount will be announced as usual at 16.30 local time on the same pages" Central Bank said.

President Tayyip Erdoğan’s continued harsh criticisms of the Central Bank's monetary policies have raised concerns about the future of its governor, Erdem Başçı, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, both of whom are widely respected among global market players.

Speculations about the possible resignation of both Başçı and Babacan have stirred markets for the last two days, despite the denials from several authorities.

His comments, a day after the Central Bank cut its key one-week repo rate by 25 basis points, fuelled the dollar against lira and rose over 2.5 lira on Feb 26. The dollar's rise against lira was accelerated with the US data on rising core inflation, a powerful sign for early rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Dollar hit new record high level today as at 2.5266 lira which eased to below 2.51 lira for a short while after the decision on forex selling amounts, but rose to just below 2.52 lira level and traded at around 2.5180 - 2.5200 lira level.