Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Turkish Lira, The World’s Worst Currency in October

Turkish Lira, The World’s Worst Currency in October

Business

Asharq Al-Awsat
FILE PHOTO: A merchant counts Turkish lira banknotes at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Turkey’s inflation marched higher in October, when the embattled lira shed value to finish as the world’s worst-performing currency. Consumer prices last month rose 11.9% from a year earlier, slightly less than forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey, whose median estimate was 12%. Prices advanced a monthly 2.1% in October, Turkey’s statistics agency, or Turkstat, said Tuesday. Food costs, which make up just over a fifth of the consumer goods basket, rose an annual 16.5%, up from 14.95% last month. Food inflation remains above the official year-end estimate of 13.5% Energy inflation, a key driver of broader price pressures, was 3.98%, down from 6.77% in September Core inflation -- which strips out volatile items such as food and energy -- climbed to 11.5% from 11.3% the previous month, a sign that some of the underlying cost pressures may be increasing According to Bloomberg, Turkey’s currency was little changed after the data release and traded 0.3% weaker at 8.4471 per dollar as of 10:15 am in Istanbul The lira reached historic lows and depreciated 7.5% against the dollar in October. It’s down more than 29% for the year. Turkey’s central bank last week raised its inflation projections for the end of this year by more than three percentage points to 12.1%. Retail prices in Istanbul, the country’s largest city, rose 2.45% on a monthly basis and an annual 12.4% in October



from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2603046/turkish-lira-world%E2%80%99s-worst-currency-october

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