Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously called on patriotic Turks to support the country's plunging currency by converting their foreign assets into lira. But today’s events may set the stage for further losses for the Turkish national currency as global investors react to Turkey’s deteriorating geopolitical situation.
Additionally, Erdogan told reporters two week ago that Turkish authorities are looking to stabilize the lira by establishing local currency trading agreements with Turkey’s biggest trading partners: Russia, China and Iran.
However, today’s brutal assassination of Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov - which can be viewed on various social media sites - may put a full stop to any future currency trading agreements between Turkey and Russia.
Video of the moment Russian ambassador was shot in Ankara. pic.twitter.com/EYNE3Hkomd
— Gilgo (@agirecudi) December 19, 2016
The lira’s disastrous performance against the dollar was greatly exasperated by the U.S. presidential election, which sent the USD/TRY exchange rate to an all-time high of 3.5966 by the 2nd of December, with the area between 3.54 - 3.56 acting as resistance for most of this month.
