ISTANBUL: The Turkish Central Bank would change its policy stance before revising its inflation forecast of 5 percent, according to a presentation by Governor Erdem Basci on Saturday at meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
The comments, posted on the Central Bank's website, re-emphasise the bank's recent hawkish tone as it battles to rein in inflation while also supporting slowing economic growth.
"The Central Bank strictly prefers revising its policy stance to revising its inflation forecast," it said.
"All policy actions will remain geared to attain the 5 percent inflation target by mid-2013."
The bank in March reverted to a tighter overall bias in its complicated monetary policy mix, concerned that a weakening of the lira would drive up the cost of imports and overall inflation.
Both the Central Bank and the government want to secure moderate growth and reduce a current-account deficit of about 10 percent of national output without undermining the lira or provoking a sharp economic slowdown.
Prices rose 10.43 percent in March, according to the latest data from the Turkish Statistics Institute, more than double the Central Bank's year-end target.
Inflation will peak in April, then "fall significantly" in May and again towards the end of the year, Basci said, according to the presentation.
Basci and other financial leaders are in Washington this week for the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
"Growth will remain moderate throughout 2012," Basci said.
Turkey's economy was Europe's fastest growing last year with an expansion of 8.5 percent. The IMF has forecast that will slow to 2.3 percent growth, while the government puts it at 4 percent.
Basci said the current-account deficit peaked in October.
"Rebalancing between the domestic and external demand continues as envisaged," he said in the presentation.
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