TURKEY’S Central Bank decided to leave its interest rates unchanged on Thursday, for the third time since it was hiked to protect the lira on January 28.

The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it would keep overnight interest rates the same, the borrowing rate at 8 percent, the marginal funding rate at 12 percent and the one-week repo rate at 10 percent.

The central bank more than doubled its borrowing rate from 3.5 percent to 8 percent on January 28 and raised the lending rate from 7.75 percent to 12 percent.

The bank said in a statement that it believed the higher interest rates contained the rapid devaluation of the Turkish lira and there was no need to increase the rates further.