Lots been going on past few days both politically and in the markets - personally, been way more interested in how the EUR/GBP situation is than the lira and getting sorted for our Winter sojourn to south west Spain. So much to do, so little time...
Anyway, it looks like the government have gone into overdrive in an attempt to shore up the lira. They've been "persuading" large corporations to convert cash reserves held in foreign currencies to lira and make announcements that future deals (seven figure and up) will only be made in lira. At least one government department bought over a QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS worth of lira this week. Yep, $261m changed into lira.
If you add in the pious ones who doggedly believe everything the wee fella says and who have been raiding their mattresses and piggy banks to buy lira then it's hardly any surprise that its improved against most major currencies.
As per usual, he's even managed to make out that this isn't Turkey's fault, oh no sir, it's that big bad boy called Soros who is manipulating the Forex markets to stage an economic coup. Well, the Daily Sabah certainly believed him and have stated in print that the funds controlled by George Soros are behind the weakening lira. No mention of the Turkish banking system being downgraded by Fitch Rating from stable to negative for 2017, the difficult relationship with the EU or any of the other domestic factors that have led to wariness about the lira by investors. Its all a western conspiracy you know...!
I'd be surprised if this isn't a temporary blip in the fall of the lira (actually I wont, as nothing surprises me about the Turkish economy any more!) and in a few weeks, maybe even days, it starts the slide once again.
Most of the above is in the HDN and SABAH.
JF
