The Turkish lira started to recover against the U.S. dollar last night, after the central bank’s emergency measures and President Erdogan’s decision to raise tariffs on U.S. import. The Turkish measures, which included targeted measures against the United States, came in a response to Washington’s decision to sanction two Turkish ministers responsible for the unjust incarceration of American pastor Andrew Brunson, as well as a doubling of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Turkey. “Turkish government also sees this recent economic tension, or rather, the recent legal and political tension with economic consequences, as a part of broader American assault within the region, that includes Iran, Russia and other countries in the region. It’s going to provide a kind of leverage to obtain some concrete results within the diplomatic and political sphere,” Economics and Finance Department, Istanbul Aydin University Dr. Sedat Aybar said.
Turkey’s central bank announced a series of measures to protect its currency lira on Monday, including providing liquidity support to banks in need and limiting the short selling of the lira. Turkey has also decided to strictly control the installment of domestic credit card shopping. “Using those measures, Turkish government was able to bring back the volatility, control volatility, and provide some stability to foreign exchange. That kind of stability is helped very much by the strong economic fundamentals of the country,” Economics and Finance Department, Istanbul Aydin University Dr. Sedat Aybar said.
With multiple measures, the lira has rallied sharply against the U.S. dollar by about 6 percent yesterday, reaching at one point to 5.85 lira to the dollar.
Meanwhil, a White House official told TV7 that negotiations for the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson are ongoing. That said, the official noted, that there was no breakthrough in obtaining his release. The official further stressed that the Trump Administration will continue to apply significant pressure on the Turkish government, to secure the pastor’s release, as well as other personnel that have worked in the U.S. mission in Turkey.