ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank delivered

another huge interest rate hike

on Thursday as it tries to curb double-digit inflation that has left households struggling to afford food and other basic goods.

The bank pushed its policy rate up by 5 percentage points, to 40%, marking its sixth big interest rate hike in a row focused on beating down inflation that hit an eye-watering 61.36% last month.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long been a proponent of an unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to fight inflation and had fired central bank governors who resisted his rate-slashing policies.

That runs counter to traditional economic thinking, and many blamed Erdogan’s unusual methods for economic turmoil that has included

a currency crisis

and

an increasingly high cost of living

.

Other central banks around the world have

raised interest rates rapidly

to target spikes in consumer prices tied to the rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and then Russia's war in Ukraine.

Following

Erdogan's reelection in May

, he appointed a new economic team, which has quickly moved toward reversing his previous policy of keeping interest rates low.

The team includes former Merrill Lynch banker Mehmet Simsek, who

returned as finance minister

, a post he held until 2018, and Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former U.S.-based bank executive, who

took over as central bank governor

in June.

Under Erkan’s tenure, the central bank has hiked its main interest rate from 8.5% to 40%.