benchmark interest rate

Mexico’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a sixth consecutive month in a bid to bolster the country’s flagging economy, and said it would soon stop lowering borrowing costs. The bank’s five-member board, led by Governor Guillermo Ortiz, lowered the key lending rate a half percentage point to 4.75 %. The board “considers that its easing cycle is close to ending,” the bank said in a statement.

Turkey’s Central Bank will probably reduce its benchmark interest rate to a new low this week, in what may prove to be the last move in eight months of monetary easing. The central bank will reduce the rate by quarter of a percentage point to 9 %, the eighth consecutive decline, as predict some economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The others forecast a half-point cut. The Ankara-based bank will announce its decision tomorrow.