Turkey’s lira continued its slide towards a record low after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed once again to cut interest rates despite spiralling inflation.
The currency fell to 16.75 against the dollar on Tuesday after Erdoğan, a life-long opponent of high borrowing costs, launched an impassioned tirade against them.
The Turkish president said that the country had “wasted years” with the misguided view that prices should be controlled by using higher borrowing costs to suppress consumption. Such policies, he said, only benefited “those living a charmed existence and filling their pockets with [the proceeds of] high interest”, including foreign investors.