Free Republic

rohl...metals tariffs on Turkey The (The Turkish lira) added to its steep losses on Friday, hitting a fresh record low, after President ( Donald Trump) authorized the doubling of metals tariffs on Turkey.

Turkey’s lira fell as much as 5% on Wednesday (23 May '18), and it’s lost more than a fifth of its value this year... On Wednesday the (Turkish Central) bank lifted a key lending rate to 16.5% from 13.5%... Mr. Erdogan has wanted to keep interest rates low before the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections when he hopes to consolidate even more power.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took aim at investors who are selling Turkish lira, saying the currency was under attack as it hit fresh record lows against the dollar. Erdoğan said there was no technical or rational reason why the lira should be losing so much value. Turkey has prepared a “project” that will reverse this trend, he said in a speech on Tuesday. The lira hit a new record as Erdoğan spoke, falling to as low as 4.3 to the U.S. currency. It declined 0.6 percent to 4.2946 at 1:28 p.m. in Istanbul. The currency had traded at 1.15...

...its lowest levels against the dollar for almost a year, amid investor nervousness about emerging markets. By evening trade in Istanbul the currency had fallen beyond TL2.30 to the US dollar, more than 1 per cent down on the day and the weakest level since January, when the Turkish central bank moved to increase interest rates -- a dramatic shift in policy that at the time halted a precipitous drop in its value. ...Turkey is far from alone in being affected by strong US economic data that has heightened expectations of a US Federal Reserve interest rate rise and so...