Turkish lira weakens again

Istanbul : The Turkish lira weakened yesterday as investors weighed up Turkey’s efforts to manage its rift with the United States after Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said US trade sanctions against Ankara could destabilise the Middle East.

The currency has lost about 38 per cent of its value against the dollar this year due to a sell-off accelerated by a row with Washington over an American evangelical Christian pastor detained in Turkey on terrorism charges. More broadly, investors are worried about the direction of monetary policy under President Tayyip Erdogan. The president, a self-described “enemy of interest rates” has repeatedly put public pressure on the central bank and picked Albayrak, his son-in-law, as finance minister.