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G7 Finance Leaders to Call on Israel to Maintain Palestinian Bank Links

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, France's Minister for Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, President of Germany's Federal Reserve Bundesbank Joachim Nagel, World Bank President Ajay Banga, attend a family photo session at the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting in Stresa, Italy, May 24, 2024. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, France's Minister for Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, President of Germany's Federal Reserve Bundesbank Joachim Nagel, World Bank President Ajay Banga, attend a family photo session at the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting in Stresa, Italy, May 24, 2024. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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G7 Finance Leaders to Call on Israel to Maintain Palestinian Bank Links

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, France's Minister for Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, President of Germany's Federal Reserve Bundesbank Joachim Nagel, World Bank President Ajay Banga, attend a family photo session at the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting in Stresa, Italy, May 24, 2024. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem, Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, France's Minister for Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, President of Germany's Federal Reserve Bundesbank Joachim Nagel, World Bank President Ajay Banga, attend a family photo session at the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting in Stresa, Italy, May 24, 2024. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

G7 finance leaders will call on Israel to maintain correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions, trade and services to continue, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters on Saturday.

The statement, to be released at the end of a Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel "to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its urgent fiscal needs"

"We call on Israel to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place, so that vital financial transactions and critical trade and services continue," the draft statement said, Reuters reported.

The G7 finance leaders also called for the removal or relaxation of other measures "that have negatively impacted commerce to avoid further exacerbating the economic situation in the West Bank."

The statement echoes a warning on Thursday from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said the failure to renew a soon-to-expire banking waiver would cut off a critical lifeline for the Palestinian territories amid a devastating conflict in Gaza.

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Türkiye's Erdogan Expects More Interest Rate Cuts in 2025

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
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Türkiye's Erdogan Expects More Interest Rate Cuts in 2025

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that there would be more interest rate cuts in 2025 after the central bank cut its key rate by 250 basis points to 47.5% this week.

The Turkish central bank trimmed the one-week repo rate after an 18-month tightening effort that reversed years of unorthodox economic policies and easy money championed by Erdogan, who has since changed tack to back the program.

"Priority in our economy program is to lower the inflation... We will hopefully reduce inflation to the required level by using other tools at our disposal in addition to the monetary policy," Erdogan told members of his AK Party (AKP) in northwestern city of Bursa.

"We will definitely start lowering the interest rates. 2025 will be the landmark year for this," he said.

"Interest rates will decrease so that inflation will decrease. We will take this step. This is now indispensable for us."

Erdogan, who once described interest rates as his "biggest enemy," said last month that inflation would fall alongside the interest rate.

The central bank earlier announced that it had reduced the number of scheduled policy meetings next year to eight from 12 in 2024.

According to a Reuters poll's median, the central bank is expected to ease rates to about 28.5% by the end of 2025, with forecasts ranging between 25% and 33%.