After surpassing the resistance level of 16.00, one dollar stood at 16.09 Turkish liras at 3:45 p.m. local time (1245 GMT). The currency has lost almost 60 percent of value against the greenback since 2021.
According to Murat Sagman, a portfolio manager and economist, the latest depreciation of the currency would trigger a new inflation wave in the upcoming period.
Sagman urged the central bank to raise interest rates at its meeting on Thursday to curb the losses in the currency.
Turkey’s inflation jumped at a monthly rate of 7.25 percent in April and 69.97 percent from a year earlier, mainly driven by growing transportation, food, and energy prices.
In February, the Turkish government announced new economic measures to ease the economic burden on Turkish citizens against the increasing cost of living, including raising the monthly minimum wage by 50 percent to 4,250 liras. But the measures fall short to alleviate the economic suffering.
The Turkish economy has long been suffering from a series of disruptions, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which pushed food and energy prices even higher levels.
“Pressure on the lira is mounting,” said Per Hammarlund, chief emerging markets strategist at SEB AB in Stockholm. He cited “persistently high inflation, signs of slowing growth in Turkey and its main trading partners, and a disastrously misguided monetary policy.”
It’s a culmination of weeks of market turbulence that ended a period of relative stability for the currency, helped by backdoor interventions and the introduction of state-backed accounts that shield savers from lira weakness. The danger is that the currency might become more vulnerable still, with the central bank unanimously expected to hold interest rates again this week despite inflation soaring to the fastest in two decades.
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