ANKARA: The Turkish central bank on Wednesday cut its 2019 inflation forecast to over 14 percent while vowing to keep a tight monetary stance until current fast rising prices fall back.
Consumer price inflation spiked to a 15-year high in October 2018 of over 25 percent before falling to 20.3 percent in December, hitting consumers hard as the Turkish lira also weakened.
The central bank said in its latest report that inflation was “likely to be 14.6 percent” at the end of 2019, down from the 15.2 percent estimate given in October.
After the announcement in Ankara during a presentation by Governor Murat Cetinkaya, the lira hit 5.28 against the US dollar after 0830 GMT, a gain of 0.5 percent on the day.
The lira lost 28 percent of its value against the dollar in 2018.
The inflation forecast for 2020 also was cut to 8.2 percent from 9.3 percent and the central bank said it hopes price rises will stabilize at “around five percent the medium term.”
The bank, which has a nominal inflation target of five percent, kept the food inflation estimate for 2019 at 13 percent.
The downward revisions come after oil price falls, improved inflation figures and the strengthening of the lira since the middle of last year.
The bank’s monetary policy committee earlier this month kept its policy interest rate, the one-week repo rate, unchanged for a third time at 24 percent.
After a currency crisis in August caused by a US-Turkey diplomatic row and concerns over domestic monetary policy, the bank hiked the rate sharply by 625 basis points to 24 percent.
Cetinkaya struck a defiant tone on Wednesday when he said that “until there is a convincing fall in inflation, we will continue our tight monetary stance.”
He added that if necessary, there could even be further tightening.
There have been concerns among investors over the bank’s independence and ability to maintain such a stance as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposes high interest rates.
Erdogan has previously referred to interest rates as “the mother and father of all evil,” going against economic orthodoxy to argue that high rates cause high inflation, not the other way round.
Turkey central bank cuts 2019 inflation forecast
Turkey central bank cuts 2019 inflation forecast
- Consumer price inflation spiked to a 15-year high in October 2018 of over 25 percent before falling to 20.3 percent in December
- The bank kept the food inflation estimate for 2019 at 13 percent
Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co.’s Q4 net profit rises 16.4% to $25.63m
RIYADH: Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co. reported a net profit of SR96.2 million ($25.63 million) in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing an increase of 16.4 percent compared to the previous three months.
For the full year 2025, the company’s net profit stood at SR395.6 million, marking a decline of 36.38 percent compared to 2024, according to a Tadawul statement.
The firm attributed the drop in annual net profit to a decrease in revenues from trading services and post-trade services, resulting from a 30.6 percent decline in average daily trading values.
Despite witnessing a drop in net profit for the whole year 2025, Group CEO of Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co., Khalid Abdullah Al-Hussan, expressed optimism and said that the financial results demonstrated the strength of the firm’s operating model and its ability to deliver balanced and sustainable growth, supported by continued progress in diversifying revenue streams and enhanced operational resilience.
“We continued executing our strategic priorities through the launch of a new product set, enhancing capital market infrastructure, and accelerating our data and technology capabilities to reinforce the Saudi capital market as a leading regional and global financial center,” said Al-Hussan.
Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co., through its Capital Market Authority-authorized subsidiaries, is the primary provider of securities trading, clearing, and settlement in the Kingdom.
The organization also provides technology innovation services through one of its subsidiaries.
As a foundational pillar of the Kingdom’s economy and the Financial Sector Development Program under the nation’s Vision 2030, the group is helping Saudi Arabia build a thriving economy with a technologically advanced and integrated capital market at its center.
The group’s total revenue for 2025 was SR1.26 billion, representing a 12.82 percent decline compared to the previous year.
The company achieved revenues amounting to SR638.7 million from the post-trade services sector, followed by the capital market at SR373.7 million, and the data and technology service segment at SR248.9 million.
Post-trade services were the company’s largest revenue driver at SR638.7 million, followed by the capital market segment at SR373.7 million and data and technology services at SR248.9 million.
The statement further said that total shareholders’ equity after minority interest amounted to SR3.44 billion as of Dec. 31, compared to SR3.49 billion in a year earlier period.
In a separate statement, the company said that its board of directors to distribute a cash dividend of 23 percent, or SR2.30 per share, for 2025.
