##rilize excess liquidity particularly through turkish lira deposit buying auctions. we also draw excess liquidity via overnight transactions at the borsa istanbul repo markets and the interbank money market. 6 / 10 bis - central bankers'speeches in addition, we started holding fx and gold swap auctions against the turkish lira as well as deposit buying auctions with different maturities twice within the same day. in the upcoming period, we will start to conduct transactions at other money markets as well, and continue to sterilize excess liquidity. for detailed information, you can see the relevant box in our report. we closely monitor and assess liquidity conditions by considering prospective developments. we will continue to effectively implement sterilization by expanding our toolset whenever needed. as for financial conditions, compound interest rates for commercial loans and deposits are priced at around 60 percent, while consumer loans are priced at around 70 percent. deposit rates are determined by the policy rate, market liquidity, and macroprudential policies as well as inflation and exchange rate expectations. as a result of our policies, inflation and exchange rate expectations have improved significantly in recent months. we believe that this improvement has played a decisive role in recent deposit rate movements. our monetary policy stance and macroprudential framework will ensure deposit rates to remain at levels that will sustain the transition to turkish lira and boost savings. it is critical that consumer loans grow at a pace that will support the rebalancing in domestic demand. in the first quarter of 2024, accelerated loan demand led to a rise in consumer loan growth, driven by credit cards and general - purpose loans. macroprudential measures taken in this regard and our tight monetary policy stance have weakened consumer loan growth since the second quarter. the more stringent monthly growth limits we introduced in march had a significant impact on turkish lira commercial loan growth. in july, turkish lira commercial loan growth was even below the monthly limits. this slowdown is in line with the improvement in inflation expectations. our analysis, which you can find in detail in the related box in our report, indicates that the fall in firms'inflation expectations reduces the demand for turkish lira loans. improving inflation expectations lead to an increase in real credit costs and a decline in firms'loan appetite. consequently, firms borrow in smaller amounts of loans at lower cost. the box also reveals that firms'demand for fx loans increased in line with improving inflation expectations. 7 / 10 bis - central

first meeting of the year to take its first decisions and to launch its first monetary policy operations. the objectives of the ecb ’ s monetary policy, which are laid down in the maastricht treaty, are ensuring price stability, and without prejudice to this primary objective, contributing to the general economic policy of the eu. price stability has been defined by the governing council of the ecb as an increase of the harmonised index of consumer prices ( hicp ) of below 2 % for the euro area as a whole from a medium - term perspective. to reach this objective a strategy has been established that rests on two pillars. as there is a large consensus about the fact that in the medium term inflation is a monetary phenomenon, the governing council has decided to adopt a reference value for the growth of a broad monetary aggregate, namely m3. the short - term relationship between money supply and prices being more complex to interpret, deviations of monetary growth from the reference value need to be addressed carefully. beside this first pillar, the second is based on a large set of indicators, including inflation forecasts, wage developments and the exchange rate. the governing council has proven its capacity to think and act for the euro area as a whole by its decision in april to cut the ecb ’ s main refinancing rate from 3. 0 % to 2. 5 %, a historical floor. at that time production was slowing and inflationary expectations were going in a downward direction. the cut has served its purpose. it has contributed to the resumption of growth. the rate of increase of consumer prices ( 1, 2 % in august for the annual rate of change in the hicp ) is still well below the ceiling of 2 %. recent monetary developments ( the growth of m3 and especially of credits to the private sector ) signal, however, a rather generous liquidity situation in the euro area while with the acceleration of the economic growth the balance of risks to price stability is at present on an upward trend. the governing council is monitoring the evolution closely and is now contemplating the appropriateness of modifying its interest rate. we don ’ t envisage adopting a restrictive monetary policy stance, but rather a less accommodating one which would be better adapted to the new context. the goal is in any case not to hinder growth but to preserve its sustainability by the mastering of inflationary risks. the euro area - and in particular belgium - could perfectly enjoy, next year, a nice combination of