Turkey's finance minister assures investors as lira slides
As Turkey’s currency neared record lows Wednesday, Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak worked to reassure investors in a rare conference call.
ISTANBUL — The Turkish lira fell for the fifth consecutive day Wednesday, approaching record lows last seen in the 2018 currency crisis, as the nation’s economy continues to weather the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The lira lost 1.5% against the dollar Wednesday, slumping to 7.19 per greenback. Negative pressure persisted on the currency despite a rare conference call by Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, in which he assured investors bank reserves were more than adequate and that state regulators would not impose capital controls.
While the pandemic has strained most emerging markets, Turkey’s economy has been particularly impacted due to concerns over state policies that have depleted central bank reserves in effort to prop up the lira in recent months.
“There is no confidence in what the authorities in Turkey are doing and that is why Turkey gets punished at the end of the day,” Wolf Piccoli, co-president and political risk analyst at Teneo Intelligence, told Al-Monitor.
