No room for inappropriate political discourse for the sake of lira: Ex-Central Bank governor

ISTANBUL / ANKARA

DHA Photo

The Turkish Lira is likely to gain value again only when inappropriate political discourses are avoided, said Durmuş Yılmaz, ex-governor of the Central Bank and now chief economic consultant of the President Abdullah Gül, speaking during a live interview on CNBC-e on Sept. 9.

“The Central Bank has responded quickly to the changing conditions in the markets by considering the available data, despite politicians. I believe the lira is likely to gain value against dollar as long as inappropriate political discourses are avoided,” Yılmaz noted.

“Everybody wants to keep interest rates low. It is of great importance to adopt policies to maintain low rates. However, the cheap and high liquidity period will end soon,” he added.

According to Yılmaz, the capital inflow to Turkey will start to rise again after the ups and downs in global markets calm down. “Turkey has now taken measures to minimize the possibility of the lira losing value,” he said.

The lira has fallen by more than 10 percent since the beginning of the year and stock prices have also fallen. However, the Turkish Central Bank is maintaining its determination to keep interest rates within the announced corridor, despite the lira’s rapid slide.