Turks woke Monday to watch their currency plunge to 14 against the dollar early in the morning, then go past it to 14.62 until noon. The fragile Turkish lira already lost more than half of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year, 28.3% of which is in the last month. The rating agency S&P downgraded its outlook on the country to negative at the end of last week.

The central bank sold foreign exchange in the currency market Monday noon, citing “unhealthy” price formation in the market. It is the bank’s fourth intervention within a month.

The Turkish government’s economy team, which held a five-hour emergency meeting late Monday, maintained a stony silence Tuesday on key financial issues such as expected rate cuts or minimum wages for 2022. Though the expectation was to have an agreement between the government, business circles and the labor unions on the minimum wage early this week, the final meeting was quietly shelved after the meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati and central bank governor Sahap Kavcioglu. The three and their teams were also joined by the directors of public banks. A cryptic statement said that the talks were on the economic situation and economic plans. No statement was made after the meeting that ended around midnight.

The opposition, however, had plenty to say in parliament where the presidential budget for 2022 was under discussion. “The daily expenses of the presidency are 59 million Turkish liras ($4 million) by day and 41,000 liras ($2,800) by minute in 2021,” said Mehmet Goker, a deputy of the center-left Republican People’s Party. “In the meantime, there are people who cannot buy bread and families who watch their income melt away. Turkish lira is worth nothing.”