Turkish lira edges closer to record low against dollar

Shafaq News / Turkey's lira weakened nearly 1% against the dollar on Thursday, moving closer to last week's record low a day after President Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed his commitment to low interest rates and asked Turks to trust his government's new economic model.

The lira weakened as far as 13.8050 versus the U.S. currency by 1209 GMT, from a close of 13.69 on Wednesday. It has lost 46% of its value to the U.S. currency this year, touching an all-time low of 14.0 last week.

The currency slide has been driven by aggressive monetary easing, sought by Erdogan to boost growth, which economists and opposition politicians say is reckless. Inflation jumped to a three-year high of 21.3% last month.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening, Erdogan said price increases in Turkey were being caused by greed and import prices, adding that financial market volatility will eventually stop.

Source: Reuters