Turkey will grow around 7.5 pct in 2017, Erdoğan heralds

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday that inflation will not fall in a country with high interest rates, two days before a Central Bank meeting.

Turkish inflation hit its highest level in 14 years last month, surging by an annual 12.98 percent as transport and food costs spiked, official data showed.

"I am against high interest rates. I will continue to announce this," Erdoğan said in a speech in Ankara. "It is impossible for inflation to decrease in a country with high interest rates. Record this in your memory."

At its latest meeting in October the central bank said that it was keeping monetary policy tight until prospects of an easing of inflationary pressures become clear, after keeping all four of its policy rates on hold in line with market expectations.

For the fourth consecutive meeting, the bank left its late liquidity window, the highest of several instruments it uses to set policy, at 12.25 percent and its benchmark repo rate at 8 percent.

Turkey's economy has recovered from a downturn that followed an attempted coup last year, helped by a series of government stimulus measures, and expanded by 11.1 percent in the third quarter.

Erdoğan also said that Turkey will grow around 7.5 percent in 2017.