The Turkish Lira dropped to record lows against the dollar today as President Erdogan rejected investors’ concerns, as well as calls for increasing interest rates, over excessive inflation.
The USD/TRY currency pair hit record highs on Monday morning at 4.0757. At press time, the USD/TRY is trading around 4.05. President Erdogan said investors who call for higher interest rates are jealous of Turkey’s economic growth.
Concerned economists and investors have urged Turkey’s authorities to raise interest rate for to taper off excessive inflation in the Turkish economy, however, Turkish monetary authorities have continued to implement various stimulus measures to keep inflation growing.
In a speech in Ankara today, the Turkish president said this:
“Those who say Turkey’s growth rate is excessive are speaking out of jealousy.”Additionally, President Erdogan stated that unemployment rate will drop below 10% as increased investment results in more jobs and economic output, “We’re talking about an investment-support incentive system, and here, first of all, we need to save investors from these high interest rates.," adds Erdogan.
Although the president has made it a priority to keep interest rates low, currency speculators and investors have been abandoning the Turkish lira in droves. Since the start of 2018, the lira has lost more than 7% of its value against the U.S. dollar.
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