Authorities dismiss claims about London investor meeting

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, as a matter of principle, never comments on interest rate policy in either domestic or international meetings, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on April 5 in response to a media report regarding recent investor meetings in London.

People who attended the meetings held by Şimşek and Central Bank Governor Fatih Karahan with foreign investors in London last week told Reuters that they were left with the impression that an interest rate hike was an option.

“The assessments regarding monetary policy conveyed as ‘impressions’ in the Reuters article about the London program do not, in any way, bind our Ministry or our Minister,” the Finance Ministry said in the statement.

The Central Bank separately issued a statement regarding the meetings in London.

“Recent public allegations claiming that ‘previously undisclosed information and assessments were shared with investors’ during the technical briefings in London are completely unfounded,” the bank said.

These briefings address technical questions on the broader macroeconomic outlook, financial markets and the banking sector, aimed at fostering a clear understanding of monetary policy implementation, it added.

“All content shared within this context is strictly limited to publicly available monetary policy texts and published macroeconomic data,” it noted.

The Central Bank added that it does not disclose non-public information or policy assessments to any external parties, whether domestically or internationally.