Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Turkish Lira Fell to Lowest Level Since May


Wed 12 Feb 2020 | 11:26 PM
Taarek Refaat

The Turkish lira fell against the US dollar to a 9-month low during Wednesday's transactions, as investors worry about the escalation in Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned, in remarks before the parliament on Wednesday, the Syrian forces against targeting more Turkish soldiers in northwestern Syria.

The killing of 13 Turkish soldiers in the Syrian's Idlib in just one week as a result of the bombing by the Syrian forces raised concern of a wider conflict.

The lira fell for the second day in a row after its rise at the beginning of the week with national banks supporting the currency.

Stormed by a currency crisis and a growing debt last year, Investors are concerned that the central bank is exposing the economy to increased financial risk by setting lower lending rates and fiscal easing.

Meantime, Erdogan indicated that the trend of reducing the interest rate will continue during the current year.

The central bank in Turkey cut the interest rate at its first meeting this year by 75 basis points to 11.25 percent, to continue a wave of cuts from the level of 24 percent last July.

The depreciation of the Turkish currency came as Ankara insisted on purchasing Russian S-400 missile defense system despite US pressure.

By the end of today's trading, the Turkish lira fell against the dollar by about 0.6 percent to the level of TRY 6.0493 after it recorded TRY 6.0658, the lowest since last May.