ANKARA: The Turkiye central bank’s net reserves fell around $4.5 billion last week, a significant part of which was before the bank’s surprise interest rate hike, bankers said on Tuesday.

According to four bankers’ calculations, net reserves dipped some $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion in the week to March 22, sliding from $19.6 billion a week earlier to about $15.1 billion.

Turkiye central bank unexpectedly hiked interest rates by 500 basis points to 50% last Thursday, citing a deteriorating inflation outlook and pledging to tighten even further if it expects the price situation to worsen significantly.

Bankers said that almost all of the reserve losses occurred in the first three days of the week, before the rate decision.

Turkey central bank stuns market with 500-point rate hike to 50pc

According to bankers’ calculations, the central bank’s total reserves decreased by approximately $4.1 billion last week to $123.8 billion.

Their calculations showed that net reserves excluding swaps decreased by some $5.5 billion last week to around minus $65 billion.

Official data is announced on Thursday at 1130 GMT.