Turkey’s Central Bank delivered another interest rate cut Thursday, lowering the benchmark one-week repo rate by 150 basis points to 10.5%. The slash comes after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's repeated calls to the autonomous body to lower interest rates to single digits despite Turkey's highest inflation in 24 years. 

Erdogan, stubborn in his unorthodox belief that high interest rates cause inflation, has sacked a steady stream of finance ministers, including his son-in-law,  and Central Bank governors since 2015 for not joining what he calls his battle against interest rates. But even his staunchest supporters have started grumbling about his election-focused economic policies, including the constant debate on interest rates. 

The Central Bank has made seven interest rate cuts since last year, including two consecutive cuts by knocking off 100 basis points in August and September. Today’s cut, larger than expected, comes amid an inflation rate of  83.45% in official September statistics  — 17 times worse than the bank’s initial annual forecast — and a 28% loss in the Turkish lira’s value against the greenback. 

The Central Bank announced Thursday that it would make further cuts in November. “The Committee evaluated taking a similar step in the following meeting and ending the rate cut cycle,” its statement read, pledging to “use all available instruments until strong indicators point to a permanent fall in inflation and the medium-term 5 percent target is achieved in pursuit of the primary objective of price stability.”