Central banks worldwide tighten policies to cool inflation

The U.S. Federal Reserve has been the most aggressive in using interest rate hikes to cool inflation that is battering both households and businesses this year. This week, central banks from Asia to England followed suit to varying degrees and using different economic tools to tame rising prices that are not isolated to the U.S.

Following are actions taken Thursday, and also earlier this week, by central banks globally:

Turkey: The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey lowered the benchmark rate by 1 percentage point, to 12%. The lira was trading around 18.38 against the dollar, weakening further than the previous record low of 18.36 in December.

United Kingdom: The Bank of England raised its key interest rate by another half-percentage point to the highest level in 14 years. The bank matched its half-point increase last month — the biggest in 27 years — to bring its benchmark rate to 2.25%.