Ankara – December 7 (Online): The Turkish lira briefly slid 1% on Monday, again nearing record lows touched last week as concerns persisted over President Tayyip Erdogan’s rate-cutting drive and Qatar said it was keeping an eye on its ally’s economic troubles.
In Doha, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Qatar was looking at any opportunities that arise from Turkey’s economic challenges.
Alongside him at a press conference, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was not asking for any money.
At 1005 GMT, the lira had recovered to 13.77 after earlier weakening to 13.88 versus the dollar. It touched an all-time low of 14.00 last week after a 30% plunge over the last month.
The selloff has been driven by aggressive monetary easing that Erdogan sought, but that economists and opposition politicians say is reckless. Inflation jumped to a three-year high of 21.3% last month.
Despite its depleted reserves, the central bank intervened in markets twice last week over what it called unhealthy prices, keeping the lira below 14 to the dollar.
Last year, Qatar’s central bank expanded to $15 billion a foreign-currency swap line it had with its Turkish counterpart.
Credite Suisse said the interventions, inflation figures, and Governor Sahap Kavcioglu’s remarks to investors last week suggest the bank may hold steady or cut rates by 50-100 points at its next meeting on Dec. 16.
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