Karahan (Friday, 9:30 AM)

Over these two years, we've had a lot of headwinds and not many tailwinds, unfortunately.

Fatih Karahan Governor, Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye

Even when a lot of data was coming in favorably last year, when we were holding steady the policy rate . . . we were not seeing enough progress on inflation expectations.

The payments area has been traditionally, for a long time, a boring topic for central bankers because there was no innovation for decades. It was something that central banks had to do . . . Now it's the opposite. There's a lot of technological innovation that offers new ways for payments.

Crypto assets, they've gained a lot of popularity in the world, and Türkiye is no exception to that. If anything, Turkish people are a bit more keen than the average citizen in the world.

We are discussing what features the CBDC, the digital lira, should have. It should be done very carefully because if not done right, it poses an alternative to the standard traditional banking system, and then you get into issues regarding financial stability.

Fatih Karahan Governor, Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye