Turkey's lira weakens on central bank's signal of early rate cut

ISTANBUL: Turkey's lira weakened to 2.36 against the dollar after the central bank signaled a possible early interest rate cut in line with the expected fall in January inflation.

Turkish Central Bank Governor Erdem Basci said on Tuesday the bank could call an early monetary policy meeting to take a quick decision on interest rates, saying it could act as soon as Feb. 4 if January inflation falls more than 1 percentage point.

The lira had earlier firmed to below 2.34 against the dollar following Basci's revision of 2015 inflation forecast to 5.5 percent.