Turkish state lender Ziraat Bank said on Thursday that it had lowered its interest rates on housing, consumer and corporate loans as of Aug. 1, Reuters reported, a week after the central bank cut its main interest rate by 425 basis points to 19.75 percent.
Ziraat said it was lowering housing loan rates to a monthly 0.99 percent for loans of up to 500,000 lira with maturities of up to 180 months. It lowered the consumer loan rates for maturities of up to 60 months to between 1.49 percent and 1.59 percent .
In a statement Turkey’s largest lender by asset size said the annual interest rate on corporate loans, including restructured loans or loans with a maturity of more than 24 months, will be between 17.0 percent and 19.0 percent as of Thursday.
According to experts, Turkey’s construction sector desperately needs consumers to find cheap money from banks as housing sales have dropped in recent months.