Ankara: Concerned Turks struggled with a sharp fall in their currency and the leader of the main opposition party said the country was experiencing its deepest “catastrophe” as the lira fell 15 percent against the dollar on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s slump comes after weeks of declines in the lira, which have already pushed up prices, prompting ordinary Turks to rethink everything from their holiday plans to weekly grocery shopping.
“There has never been such a catastrophe in the history of the republic,” said Kemal Kilikdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party, accusing President Tayyip Erdogan of currency-free, who has led the country since 2003. “At this point, you have a fundamental national security problem for the Republic of Turkey,” Kilicdaroglu said. Erdogan has pressured the central bank to cut interest rates in a move he says will boost exports, investment and jobs, but critics say it will lead to double-digit inflation and hurt the lira. would be destroyed, thereby cutting deep into the earnings of the Turks.
Shoppers in central Ankara mall said they could not take their eyes off the lira rate, which fell to $13.45 against the dollar on Tuesday. A year ago it was 8 against the dollar, last month it reached 9 and last week it reached 10.
“I have become unable to work without following the dollar,” said Celine, a 28-year-old ad agency worker. “I don’t think there’s a day when I don’t need to look at my budget, and by the time I get the next month’s salary, the calculation has changed 100 times. There’s nothing left, including toilet paper, which I I buy without thinking carefully.
Former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a founding member of Erdogan’s ruling AK party, before splitting to form his own party, described the president’s economic measures as “treason and not ignorant”.
Kilicdaroglu, Davutoglu and some other opposition leaders have declared emergency meetings to discuss the currency after Tuesday’s crash – the lira’s second biggest drop ever.
Published in Dawn, November 24, 2021