ANKARA: Turkey’s central bank has said it is ready to take “all necessary measures” to ensure financial stability after the collapse of the lira.
It has vowed to provide banks with “all the liquidity the banks need”. The comments came after a widening diplomatic spat with the US prompted market turmoil in the country.
Investors were not reassured. Although the lira rose slightly, it still hit a new record low against the dollar and stock markets in Europe and Asia fell. Before the announcement the lira was down 9% before recovering slightly to be 6% lower in late morning trading in Turkey.
Turkey’s interior ministry said it was taking legal action against 346 social media accounts it claimed had posted comments about the weakening lira “in a provocative way”.
The slide had worsened on Friday, when US President Donald Trump approved the doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium, following Turkey’s refusal to free an American pastor who has been in detention in Turkey for nearly two years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed not to allow Turkey to be “brought to its knees” and has spoken of a plot against the country.
Before the new measures were announced, Japan’s Nikkei 225 had already fallen almost 2% in late trading. News of the announcement did nothing to perk up share values there and it closed down that amount.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down almost 1.6% in afternoon trade, but the Shanghai Composite recovered from a fall of 1.7% to trade with much smaller falls in afternoon trading.
In early trading in Europe, London’s 100-share index was down 0.5%, while the German and French share markets were down by similar amounts.
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