(MENAFN- AFP) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed the central bank's 50 basis points reduction of a key interest rate as "insufficient," accusing the bank of failing to "get the message."
"It is not possible for us to find this reduction sufficient. It appears that the central bank did not get its share of the messages delivered," Erdogan told reporters before embarking on a tour of Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti.
His comments came a day after the central bank, nominally independent, bowed to political pressure and lowered the one-week repurchase rate to 7.75 percent from 8.25 percent, for the first time in six months.
Last year, the bank had aggressively raised key rates to prop up the Turkish currency lira after a steep drop in its value. A cycle of cuts since the summer however is far from convincing the president who wants the bank to prune rates back to their former level.
Erdogan said Wednesday high interest rates were one of the issues that "hurts me" and said the central bank would be subjected to criticism whenever it took "wrong steps."
"This interest (rate) should be lowered so that entrepreneurs can make investments," he added.
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