Turkey Maneuvers to Escape Its Dollar Trap
Geopolitical Diary
December 8, 2016 | 04:31 GMT Text Size
In Turkey, patriotism appears to be running deeper than profit motive. A number of major Turkish companies in the past few days have announced that they will heed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's behest announced Friday to convert their U.S. dollars to lira. The switch may help to shore up the Turkish currency, but it does not make a great deal of purely commercial sense. The list of businesses so far supporting Erdogan's call by conducting some transactions in lira include the Defense Ministry's Industry Support Fund, Turkish Airlines and various telecom operators. The experiment, which has also involved Turkish citizens, has resulted in, at least during the past three days, a sharp reversal of fortune for the lira, which has strengthened against the dollar to end a monthslong streak of depreciation.
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