The Turkish currency lost 20% Friday, August 10, 2018, bringing its loss to 40% since the beginning of the year. The pound has reached a record level against the dollar. The Turkish authorities favor the thesis of an economic war pointing at the West.
In a message to the nation, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged his fellow citizens to change their foreign currencies and gold to support the pound. “If you have dollars, euros or gold under your pillow, go to the banks to exchange them for Turkish lira. It’s a national struggle.
Speaking in Bayburt, a city in northeastern Turkey, Erdogan added that the dollar would not get in the way of Turkey. “They have dollars, we have Allah”.
A speech that caused panic. Especially since, just after this intervention, Donald Trump announced on Twitter the doubling of the customs taxes on the aluminum and the Turkish steel. “Their currency, the Turkish lira, is falling rapidly against our strong dollar,” Trump said in his message, adding that imports of aluminum and steel from Turkey will now be taxed at 20% and 50% respectively. %.
This surge of tension is reflected in the banking sector. According to the Financial Times, the European Central Bank is worried about the exposure of European institutions to Turkey, in particular BBVA, UniCredit and BNP Paribas.
The title of the French bank has lost up to 4.6% in session and led the whole of the rating. The CAC 40, which had returned above 5,500 points on Wednesday, dropped 1.59% to end the week just over the threshold of 5,400. The euro, meanwhile, hit a lows of more than a year, at 1.1414, against the dollar, which played its role of safe haven as the storm blows on the stock market.
