Turkish lira

Turkey's lira plunged 7% to a record low on Wednesday in its biggest daily selloff since a historic 2021 crash, as the newly-elected government appeared to loosen stabilizing measures in its pivot to more orthodox policies.

The lira has come under pressure since President Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected on May 28. It stood at 22.98 against the dollar at 0735 GMT.

Five officers from the Didymoteicho Border Guard Department in northeastern Greece were arrested on Monday after a five-month investigation and charged with smuggling migrants from Turkey, authorities announced on Tuesday.

Turkey's lira wobbled near record lows against the dollar as President Tayyip Erdogan secured victory in the country's presidential election on Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade.

The currency was at 20.05 to the dollar during Asian hours, just shy of the 20.06 record low hit on Friday.

ISTANBUL - Inflation in Turkey remains stubborn at 44%. Consumers have watched their paychecks buy less and less food as the months tick by. And now, government largesse and efforts to prop up the currency are threatening economic growth and could push the country into recession.

Turkey's lira hit a two-month low on Monday and the country's credit default swaps jumped as a tightly-contested presidential election headed towards a runoff vote, while broader emerging market equities snapped a four-day losing streak.

"Unfortunately, due to this attitude, we have come to the stage of a strike in both companies," Durmus said.

However, the strike has raised concerns about access to reliable information ahead of critical general and presidential elections on May 14.

The draft election manifesto of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party marks a return to more orthodox, free market economic policies, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Turkey is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 and opinion polls show that Erdogan will face his biggest electoral challenge yet in his two decades in power.

Mortgages with lower rates and longer maturities will be offered to middle income Turks looking to buy new housing, Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said on Wednesday.

Nebati told a news conference the mortgage loans with amount up to 5 million lira ($266,823), will have up to 15 years maturity and rates will start from 0.69%.

Within the scope of the first-phase studies of the Digital Turkish Lira Project, the first payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira Network have been successfully executed, the Central Bank said.

The bank said in a statement that it will continue to run the limited, closed-circuit pilot tests with technology stakeholders in the first quarter of 2023.

The Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is set to meet tomorrow to consider the key policy rate.

The meeting will take place after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that interest rates should come down to single digits by the end of the year.