While the Bank of Japan (BOJ) did not change the interest rate at -0.10% as expected at the meeting held today, it increased the yield band for Japanese Government Bonds from 25 basis points to 50 basis points. After the decision, BOJ Chairman Kuroda said that they will not hesitate to loosen monetary policy further if necessary, and that today’s decision will be made. He said that there was no interest rate increase, that it was appropriate to continue the loose monetary policy and that they did not intend to increase interest rates or tighten policy.

In Turkey, the Consumer Confidence Index for December, announced today, dropped from 76.6 to 75.6. In December, the Index of Thoughts on Spending on Durable Goods rose to 92.6 from 91.9, while the Index of Expectation for the General Economic Situation fell from 80.5 to 77.3.

Housing Starts decreased by 0.5% and Construction Licenses decreased by 11.2% for November, which we followed in the USA. The figures were 1.427 million and 1.342 million, respectively, on a per unit basis. It was stated that the decrease in the data was due to rising material prices and rising housing loan rates.