Saturday, November 27, 2021

Turkish lira crashes to ‘insane’ historic low after President Erdogan sparks sell-off

 Turkey's currency the lira continues to devalue against the dollar as the countries central bank inexplicably continues to slash interest rates even as inflation rises to double digits. The lira has been on a downward trend since 2018 after president Erdogan looked to boost the economy by slashing interest rates and with the onset of the pandemic the rates were further lowered. However lower interest rates come with inflation, which is now nearing 20 percent in Turkey. One would think that this would be a good time to start increasing interest rates but the central bank is looking to do anything but that. The central bank seems to be operating under the directions of the president who believes that higher rates will increase inflation while also slowing down growth and job creation. 

This inflation must be severely hampering the citizens goods to be able to buy basic goods as wages take time to adjust. The inflation is also bad for Turkey's foreign denominated debt which gets harder to pay off as the currency devalues.


source:https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/23/turkish-lira-plummets-to-historic-low-after-erdogan-sparks-selloff-.html

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