BLBG:Turkey’s Lira Falls Most in Week After Central Bank Offers Fewer Dollars
The lira fell the most in a week against the dollar after Turkey’s central bank offered $350 million for liras in a daily auction, the least since the currency fell to a record low last week.
The lira dropped 0.4 percent to 1.8369 per dollar at 11:07 a.m. in Istanbul. Yields on two-year benchmark bonds rose 2 basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 8.35 percent.
“It seems that the central bank will not make much effort to drive the lira higher from here, even if it wants a stronger lira,” Baris Karaayvaz, a currency trader at Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS, the biggest listed bank, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “It does not make sense for the bank to offer $1 billion when the lira trades at 1.83 against dollar.”
The central bank has offered as much as $1.35 billion at the auctions, selling a record $750 million on Oct. 5, after the lira slid to an historic low of 1.9096 the previous day. The lira has slumped 16 percent this year, the worst performer among 25 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg after the South African rand.
To contact the reporter on this story: Selcuk Gokoluk in Istanbul at sgokoluk@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Bentley at mbentley3@bloomberg.net
