The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank has reduced the policy rate from 15 percent to 14 percent. Following the policy rate cut, Turkish Lira has crashed to a new low and the USD exchange rate has hit 15.61 TRY.

Ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the Central Bank today, December 16, the depreciation of the Turkish Lira has continued amid expectations that the policy rate will be cut further.

A law professor close to the president suggested that "we should be prepared for a state of emergency due to the economic crisis." Economics Mustafa Sönmez has commented about the issue.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) called a one-day strike in protest against the withdrawal of the legislative proposal foreseeing improvements in the employee personal rights of health workers. Several unions have supported today's strike.

The minimum wage commission was expected to convene at the start of the week.

The lira plunged to as low as 14.61 to the US dollar and 16.47 to the Euro in the first half of the day.

At the General Assembly of the Parliament, the legislative proposal foreseeing improvements in the employee personal rights of physicians and dentists has been withdrawn. The TTB has decided to halt work for a day in protest.

Four labor and occupational organizations announced that they would hold joint rallies of “We cannot make a living” across Turkey on December 12. The Muratpaşa Sub-Governor’s Office in Antalya has banned the rally “because it might pose a risk”.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released the labor force statistics for October 2021: The unemployment rate was 11.2 percent, which marked a monthly decrease of 0.2 percentage point.

According to the World Inequality Report 2022, the poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all, possessing just 2 percent of the total.

Several healthcare workers went on a one-day strike in several provinces across Turkey on December 6, demanding that the improvements in payments be the case for all healthcare workers as healthcare is a teamwork.

The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) has decided to hold a rally where the demands of the working class and laborers are widely expressed. The rally will take place in İstanbul on December 12, 2021.

The İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit against the three people who were briefly arrested as part of the operations against the waste paper workers in Ümraniye district.

The SES union protests a new additional indicator law that excludes health workers other than doctors and nurses.

Shortly before the state agency TurkStat announced the official consumer inflation rate in Turkey in November 2021 as 21.31 percent, the Inflation Research Group (ENAG) had announced its own figure: 58.65 percent.

The annual inflation rate stood at 21.32 percent and the monthly inflation rate was 3.51 percent, according to the TurkStat.

As the government is poised to determine next year's minimum wage, the DİSK-AR points out the decrease in the income of weakness.

With the slogan “We cannot make ends meet”, the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK) will hold a rally in Diyarbakır and İzmir on December 8 and in İstanbul and Ankara on December 19.

The president has explained his "new economic model" and the country's "war of economic liberation" as Central Bank intervenes in the market to bring down foreign exchange rates.

"We are refusing the policy of drawing hot money flow with high interest rates," the president has said.