Global markets focus on central banks' interest rate decisions

ISTANBUL

While the US Federal Reserves (Fed) kept interest rates unchanged and accelerated to reduce assets purchases on Wednesday, investors and analysts will be focusing on European, Turkish and UK central banks' interest rate decisions on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Fed signaled for three interest rate hikes in 2022 and increased inflation forecasts for the following year.

Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, said the emergence of the omicron variant along with rising COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, pose risks to the outlook.

Analysts read Powell's speech and Fed's statement as “strong and clear,” noting that while the Fed continued its hawkish position, the statements reduced uncertainties for 2022 monetary policies.

While the European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to keep the interest rate at 0%, the Bank of England (BoE) is expected to raise the interest rate on Thursday due to the recently released high inflation figures.

Turkish Central Bank is expected to lower the interest rate by 100 basis points to 14% at the last monetary policy meeting of the year.

Analysts said central bank statements will clarify the monetary policy path for 2022.

On Wednesday, the US stock indices closed the day on a positive side, while the EU and Asian indices closed the day with mixed figures.

Turkey's BIST 100 index closed Wednesday at 2,162.26 points.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun