Turkey lira hits record low

The Turkish lira hit a record low of 7.49 against the US dollar yesterday, under the impact of growing risk aversion, which increased selling pressures globally.

The record low brings losses against the US currency this year to nearly 21 per cent, putting it among the world’s worst performers.

With the Turkish currency having fallen in six of the last seven sessions, investors are still looking for signals as to whether the central bank has halted its month-long backdoor tightening policy.

Turkey’s Finance Minister Berat Albayrak recently told Bloomberg that his country could capitalise on the legacy of the global coronavirus crisis by putting a competitive lira at the heart of a new strategy to move to a more export-focused economy.

“In light of all the data, we expect the recovery in the second half to be V-shaped,” Albayrak told Bloomberg. “I believe our growth rate will be significantly above 5% in 2021 if there won’t be another major wave in the outbreak.”

READ: Turkey’s economy shrinks almost 10% in 3 months