Turkish rate boost to lira fizzles out

Turkey's lira has slipped back after initially leaping by about 3.0 per cent in response to the central bank's doubling of the interest rate.

Crisis action by the Turkish central bank doubling its key interest rate gave only brief relief to the lira, which fell back as emerging markets faced a US monetary policy decision.

The Turkish decision was closely watched on Wednesday in emerging markets where the South African central bank followed with a half-point rise in its key rate.

The Turkish bank defied political pressure to double its key interest rate to 10.0 per cent to attract funds and fight a run on the currency.

The increase was also a pre-emptive move against any tightening of US monetary policy, which could suck money out of emerging economies.

The lira leapt by about 3.0 per cent overnight in response to the central bank's U-turn.

But during trading on Wednesday, the lira lost its gains. After the decision, it shot up to 2.17, but later was down to 2.25 by close of trade.

But it was still well above the record low of 2.39 to the dollar it reached at one point on Monday.

The lira also slipped to 3.11 to the euro before recovering to 3.06.

The Istanbul stock exchange lost by 2.29 per cent to 62,088.70 points.


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Source: AAP


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