ISTANBUL - Governor Fatih Karahan said on Friday that Turkey's central bank is "not on autopilot" after two straight rate cuts, stressing that decisions are based on data as the bank raised its year-end inflation forecast to 24% from 21%.

"We can pause or change the size of policy rate moves," Karahan told a press conference to present the bank's quarterly inflation report in Istanbul. "Rate cuts are made in line with data."

Karahan delivered the hawkish message at a time when both inflation and interest rates are heading lower and authorities are predicting the coming end of years of price and currency turmoil.

Data this week showed monthly inflation climbed more than expected to 5.03% in January due to a minimum wage hike and several new-year price revisions. Annual inflation, which peaked above 75% last May, fell to 42.12% in January.

Karahan said the bank left its end-2026 forecast unchanged at 12% and set its end-2027 forecast at 8%.

The bank's inflation battle began in June 2023 when it launched a series of aggressive rate hikes that totalled 4,150 basis points and reached 50% in March last year. It was an abrupt shift to orthodoxy after years of low rates aimed at stoking growth.

After cuts of 250 basis points in both December and January, the policy rate now stands at 45% and is expected to fall to 30% by the end of the year.

President Tayyip Erdogan, who in past years was viewed as influencing monetary policy, had backed the previous unorthodoxy that triggered currency crashes and soaring inflation. But he has since supported the current policy steps.

(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun, Can Sezer, Nevzat Devranoglu and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Daren Butler and Toby Chopra)