Erdogan lowers interest rates and sends the lira plummeting

While the Turkish population is groaning under 80 percent inflation, the central bank unexpectedly cuts interest rates. The measure bears the signature of President Erdogan, for whom price stability is not a priority. He has other priorities.

You can buy fewer and fewer goods in Istanbul’s markets with Turkish lira.

Erdem Sahin / EPA

“Just when you think the Central Bank of Turkey can’t get any crazier, it enters a new level of madness.” What Timothy Ash, Bluebay Asset Management’s Turkey expert, rather undiplomatically to the point, now reflects a broad consensus on the financial market. For some time now, the monetary authority has been behaving contrary to all economic logic and is making Turkey’s problems even worse.