ISTANBUL: Turkey’s lira tumbled to a new low yesterday, under-performing other emerging markets as speculators tested the central bank’s resolve to defend it in the face of US “tapering”, rising oil prices and fears over neighbouring Syria.
The lira hit 2.0840 to the dollar in morning trade, its weakest ever, later recovering slightly to 2.0800 by 1203 GMT. It was also near record lows against the dollar/euro basket at 2.4133.
Turkey’s gaping current account deficit, high levels of short-term foreign debt and relatively low reserves of foreign currency compared to emerging markets peers make it particularly vulnerable to volatile global capital flows.
Reuters
