Maltese lira

I finally graced the pages of pro-government ?newspaper? Sabah on March 7 for my March 6 column, joining other respected Turkish and foreign journalists and columnists they also accused of treason and being an enemy of Turkey. I am only angry it didn?t come any sooner.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on March 11 met with the government's economic pointman and the central bank governor, agreeing on the need to maintain trust in the economy at talks aimed at calming markets after a plunge in the value of the lira.
      

Do?an Holding has denied claims that it profits from the rise of the dollar exchange rate in Turkey, stressing that the latest hikes actually hurt it financially.

The corporation?s March 10 statement came after a number of newspapers accused the group of engaging in ?crisis-mongering? to profit from the dollar?s rise.

Turkey's Central Bank has taken a number of measures to defend the Turkish Lira, but did little to recover it off record lows, outweighed by a globally strong U.S. dollar and concerns about political actors' intervention in economic policy.

The Turkish Central Bank said on March 9 it was cutting its one-week forex deposit interest rates, triggering gains in the lira after a week of sharp declines driven partly by worries over political pressure on the bank.

Turkish authorities have scrambled to stem the markets' rush to the U.S. dollar by issuing smoother statements about the Central Bank, after the Turkish Lira plunged to a series of historic lows.

When Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an began a new wave of statement against the Central Bank on Jan. 16, roughly one-and-a-half months ago, one U.S. dollar was worth 2.30 Turkish Liras (TL).

The Turkish Lira has dropped to a new all-time low yet again, seeing 2.6 against the U.S. dollar amid the strengthening trend of the greenback and investor concerns about the fate of Turkish economic management.

The dollar/lira ratio rose above 2.6 and tested 2.6002 before easing back to around 2.5905 in the afternoon, as the U.S. currency continued to rally around an 11-year high.

Turkish economists have written and talked about the importance of the exchange rate on the economy so much that every housewife or cab driver, in fact just anyone who proudly calls herself a Turk, is aware of the main arguments.

The Turkish lira weakened to as low as 2.42 against the dollar Jan. 29 on expectations that the Turkish Central Bank will cut interest rates at an extraordinary monetary policy committee meeting as early as next week.